摘 要

死亡是一个永恒的话题。为了揭示其本质，诗人们创造了一系列的死亡意象。本文通过列举几位诗人的典型作品，结合其社会背景，生活经历，宗教信仰等，比较分析中外诗歌中死亡意象的异同，从而深入剖析人们对死亡的认知过程。本文分五部分：第一部分对死亡主题，意象，以及相关研究做简要介绍；第二部分写消极死亡意象与诗人个人经历的关系；第三部分写积极死亡意象与诗人对待死亡的观念；第四部分写死亡意象对于诗人的救赎作用，以及对于个体生命责任的启发；第五部分对死亡意象的存在和意义进行归纳总结，从而找到个体生命的存在使命。相比于前人研究，本文更加注重死亡这一主题对于现实生活的指导意义。死亡固然可怕，但人生的意义在于对真和美的不懈追求。只有这样，当灵魂脱离肉体的禁锢，它才能在另一个世界里实现自己的重生。

关键词：死亡；死亡意象；救赎；使命；重生

Abstract

Death has been an everlasting topic. All kinds of poetic images of death are created to reveal its essence. By means of selecting several typical examples, comparing and analyzing the negative and positive death images according to the social backgrounds, personal experience, and religious belief, this thesis aims to figure out the process that people perceive the essence of death. It is composed of five parts: part one is a brief introduction to the death theme and image, as well as previous researches; part two mainly focuses on the relationship between negative death image and the poets’ life experience; part three mainly focuses on the positive death image and the poets’ perception of death; part four mainly focuses on the redemption function of poetic image of death, as well as its enlightenment for the mission of individual life; part five is a conclusion of the existence and meaning of death image. Compared with previous researches, this paper attaches more importance to the guidance function that death has on the reality. Death is not terrible, and the meaning of life lies in the pursuit for beauty and truth. Only in this way can the soul achieve its revival in another world when it is released from the imprisonment of the body.

Key Words: death; death image; redemption; mission; revival

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Puzzle of Death: Negative Death Image and Fickle Life 3

2.1 Struggling 3

2.2 Disillusion 4

3 Faith of Life: Positive Death Image and Abiding Faith 7

3.1 Embrace 7

3.2 Revival 8

4 Sojourner of Life, Witness to Destiny 10

4.1 Redemption 10

4.2 Mission 12

5 Conclusion 14

References 15

Acknowledgements 16

Sojourner of Life: Poetic Image of Death

1 Introduction

For thousands of years, death has always remained an inevitable topic for those who are occupied with literary creation. Exploration of the mystery of life and death has never come to an end. Even though, there still exist various kinds of arguments over this matter. People from different countries, different religions, and different cultures, tend to hold different opinions. Because of different cultural origins, people’s attitudes towards life and death differ from each other between Chinese and Western, which is also reflected in literary works. And among various literary genres, death in poetry is the most mysterious, charming, and attractive. It has been endowed with diversities of images by those poets who are devoted to decoding its unique characteristics. Regarded as one of the most important ways of poetic creation, Chen Zhengrong(2003) pointed out that image is the combination of the poet’s affection and the figure of the object of creation. Ezra Pound demonstrated that an image presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time. This has supported a proper way for the poets who have witnessed death and life to describe and explore this matter.

Regardless of human beings’ will, death happens as usual. Now that the outcome is doomed, what is the point of life? Different answers have also been put forward by different scholars from home and abroad. Actually, just as Jiang Lei(2005) stated that poetry was regarded as the best art to express human’s emotion, it also focused a lot on the theme of death in both Chinese and Western poems. That is to say, it is of great significance to figure out the deep meaning of death images in those poems to decode the mystery of life and death.

Due to the differences of cultural backgrounds, Chinese and Western poets tend to hold different attitudes towards death. Under the great influence of Confucianism, most Chinese hold the view that the most important thing is to live well in this life. Previous life and afterlife are no more than an escape from reality. On the contrary, most of the Westerners believe in God. They are convinced of the fact that death is a kind of rebirth, and their souls will continue to exist after this life. For them, death is something worthy of praise, and always appears in their literary works as the sublimation of life. Anyhow, there is no denying that the exploration of death can deepen people’s comprehension of life, so as to help them to carry out their responsibilities and missions.

In fact, death, as a universal problem for humankind, has been discussed all the time. Recently an increasing number of researches were carried out to interpret thanatopsis in literary works from different aspects. M Schererrath(2001) wrote that images of death are reflections of one’s own attitude to life, and stressed that their meaning should never be underestimated. From the perspective of language, image, and intention, Ding Liming(2008) discussed the relationship between death and religion, death and social reality, so as to master the thoughts of Lawrence. While there were also studies which analyzed death image from the aspect of artistic conveyance. For instance, Li Libo(2015) focused on the way how defamiliarization effect of the use of metaphor and metonymy reflected the poet’s pursue for eternity. Death is never the most terrible thing for them, but the meaning of life has puzzled them all the time. Aimed at the phenomenon of poets’ suicide, Lu Xi(2001) tried to explore its poetic meaning by some typical cases and generalization to set up the correct values, and wrote that the death image can be classified into positive and negative ones, and the former was of poetic significance while the latter was misleading. Actually, death was not necessarily so horrible as it was thought. For some people, it might represent another kind of beauty which was in the disguise of death. In studying Edgar Allan Poe’s Poetry, Liu Shu(2013) stated that a totally new perspective was expected to appreciate the beauty of death, and explore the eternity of life.

On the basis of previous researches, the paper is aimed to make a concrete comparative analysis between negative and positive death images. By means of selecting several typical poets and their poems, it is expected to go further in their spiritual world, and to reveal their understanding over the relationship between life and death. Only when we get deeper comprehension about death, can we truly figure out the mission and significance of life.

2 Puzzle of Death: Negative Death Image and Fickle Life

Doubtlessly, death has remained an everlasting and regular theme in the history of literary creation. Whoever tries to touch the core of literature has to be confronted with the problem of death. Because of the influence of traditional cultures and religions, most Chinese tend to take negative attitudes towards death. In their poems, death images usually stand for destruction, nothingness, transience, as well as inability for the fickle life. Death has become a shelter from the cruelty of reality.

However, it is of no use escaping from what is doomed to happen. It is the faith of life that truly matters. Most of Chinese poets are still influenced by traditional attitude towards death, and regard it as the end of life. Their obsession for life is always reflected in their description of the flying times and fickle life in their poems. Limited life span leaves them boundless panic. Death in their poems often appears in the disguise of other images. And these negative death images are usually in close relationship with their unpleasant personal experience, and fickle life. In this part, two famous Chinese poet, Li He and Hai Zi, are chosen to explore the puzzle of death, as well as the deep relationship between negative death images and the poets’ life experience.

2.1 Struggling

Known as “Ghost of Poetry”, Li He was famous for his God-ghost poems. During his short life span, death seemed to have accompanied him all the way. Born in Tang dynasty, he should have performed his talents freely in the age of poetry. Unfortunately, the most glorious time of poems had come to an end. The chaotic political situation had stopped him from obtaining a proper official position to realize his ambition; the miserable personal experience had left him deep impression over death. What he had witnessed and experienced strengthened his awareness of death. Zhang Zongfu(2006) wrote that Li He’s agony was actually the agony of his sensitive perception of life and death, and his inability to achieve his value. On the one hand, he believed that everything was to come to an end after the death. So he tried his best to fight against the fate during his short life. On the other hand, due to long sufferings in his life experience, he had to think over the meaning of life to reduce his worry about death.

It is estimated that “old” had appeared directly in his poetry for more than 50 times, and “death” 20 times. There were also other death images, such as “disease” and “drug”, “blood” and “red”, as well as “grave” and “tomb”(Li Xin, 2011). The frequent use of death images in his poems had revealed the fact that the poet was struggling in the shadow of death, and felt quite disappointed at reality. He always wrote that the god would die, the mountain would die, and everything was destined to end with death. For his whole life he was faced with death, but he never gave up the strugglefor life. In the world of death image, he could not find way out but to endure. In his poem “Autumn Comes”, he wrote: