"Space And Image" Research And China Ancient Cosmic Poetry

In researching a number of issues in the book Cosmos and Imagination, the PhDthesis aims to compare two views of cosmology in Chinese and western poetry. TheCosmos and Imagination intended to study the influence of philosophy of science andcosmology upon the poets’ imagination. It stressed three typical literary images:cosmos system, space and life. Alternate predomination between Heraclitus andParmenides’ philosophy penetrated all the images. From closed pattern to open patternwas the central image of the cosmos system. The central image of the space was theEther and the theme of space travel. The images of life in the cosmos includedgravitation, seed, tree, snake, nebula, decomposition and death of celestial bodies, fireand transmigration. The tradition of closed cosmos philosophy repressed imagination,and led to the rebel of the aesthetics after Renaissance. Upholding the vision of“unlimited” was not unique to the poets. Theologians believed unlimited creation onlycould match the power of God. The astronomers thought that unlimited cosmos couldenclose many of the worlds. Biologists appreciated unlimited forms of life.“Unlimited” also was pursuit by the romantics, whose aesthetics had infiniteinclusiveness. For them limits and scholasticism meant exhaustion of aesthetics. Thepoets’ mental had contact with the philosophy of cosmos science, but they were notcompletely parallel. Pierre de Ronsard’s spherical cosmos could not testify that he wasa pure Parmenides poet. He advocated unlimited time and change, and praised deathwhich led to new life. Hugo was a pure Heraclitus poet and his cosmic imaginationwas victory of "unlimited" aesthetics. Paul Claudel admitted infinite flow of time, buthe described cosmic space as a closed house and criticized infinite space explicitly.The common contradiction which had Ronsard and Claudel was to allow limitedspace to accommodate unlimited time and changes. Chinese ancients were good attranscending the visible world, imagining the invisible world. They had traditionalvision of unlimited cosmos, which meant that world has limit and starting point, butcosmos has not. There are two infinite dimensions in cosmos, maximum andminimum. The concepts of “center” and of “edge” are interdependent, which can beall ignored. Unlimited cosmos has many worlds. Change is the law of the nature.Endless change brings renewal and life. Time, space and change are indivisible, whichare the essence of the cosmos. Advocating the philosophy of infinite cosmos has beenturned into appreciating aesthetics of infinite. The representatives of the literarytheorists were Liu Xie, Si Kongtu, Wang Fuzhi and Ye Xie. They believed that humanbeings were the heart of the cosmos and poets’ spirit could accommodate the cosmos,that the cosmos took changes as its aesthetic and became aesthetic by the changes.The law of the cosmos which advocates changes was used as a cornerstone to explainthe essence of literature history. Following the law of cosmos was the ultimatestandard of poetry and poetics. Phenomena of human civilization and signs of cosmoshad the same noble sense. Chinese ancients advocated the consciousness of humanbeing’s participation, which was in contrast with the ancient Greece’s lack of selfindependence in the poetics. We choose Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi to representChinese ancient poets. They questioned the limited cosmos system and were very sensitive to the contrast between limited human life and eternal cosmos. They tookchange as cosmos’s essence and often talked about ways and law of cosmic change.Their points of view regarding cosmic ontology varied between void and plenitude. Qiwas the focus of their cosmology. They inherited thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi andunderstood cosmos in the way of observing moving things with peaceful status ofmind. They dreamed of flying in boundless cosmos and embracing the whole world.They had the vocation of surpassing all limits and yearned unlimited space. As aConfucian poet, Du Fu adhered to Confucius concept of “faithful and forgiveness”and firmly believed that human beings and others creatures had the same heart and thesame nature, especially that the cosmic life was perpetual. Occidental concept ofinfinite cosmos was an uprising against the traditional mode. Therefore it was aviolent struggle to surpass cosmic limits. So westerners’ rebel with the purpose ofreligion and conquering the cosmos was to some extent away from the reality or theearth. Related to God, their idea of boundless cosmos was frenetic. On the contrary,Chinese ancients’ unlimited cosmology was placid and without characteristic ofreligion. But we should not call Chinese ancient poets as romantics, though theyclaimed that the cosmos was infinite, because philosophy of boundless cosmos did noturge Chinese ancients to image the cosmos in an occidentally romantic way. Contrastbetween Chinese and occidental concept of cosmos life lay in spirit-material,ethics-biology, practical-impractical, noble（in the sense of being instructive）-vulgar,whole harmony-individual or collective adventures. For Chinese ancients, flying incosmic space was based on the reality and due to the purposes of personalaccomplishment or politics. Westerners abandoned earth and conquered the cosmos.Western poets’ psychology has experienced great change in aesthetic taste fromlimited to unlimited. The strong comparison between limited cosmos’ pattern andunlimited cosmos’ pattern influced the thoughts of poets after Renaissance. Theancient Chinese has the traditional thinking of unlimited cosmos. Philosophers,literary critics and poets admired vision of unlimited time, space and change. There isno violent revolution against limited cosmos system in history of thought of ancientChina. Facing the unlimited cosmos, Chinese ancients always had moderate anddetached attitude.