1. Research Purpose Moby Dick is one of the masterpieces of Herman Melville. D.H. Lawrence, the famous British writer, once praised it as ”the unequalled epic of the seas” (Hei Ma, 2004). The Cambridge History of American Literature (Sacvan Bercovitch, 2003) calls it as ”one of the greatest sea legends in the history of world literature”. Ian Ousby thinks it is ”part drama, part adventure story. Part philosophical, part scientific, part epic. It is a fantastic imperial masterpiece.” (Wang Wensheng Shen Lei, 1991). Many scholars study it, mainly focusing on the tragic significance, symbolic significance, religious culture, humanitarian thought and other aspects of it. However, there is little research on the relationship between man and nature from the perspective of ecocriticism. Moby Dick contains rich ecological thoughts. To examine Moby Dick from the perspective of ecocriticism is helpful for exploring the ecological connotation of the work and for arousing the ecological consciousness of human beings. 2. Research Background Since the industrial revolution, science and technology have endowed human beings with great power to transform nature. The unrestricted use of this power by human beings has caused profound ecological crisis on a global scale. The main manifestation of global crisis is the ecological imbalance caused by the sharp decrease of biodiversity. As a member of the ecosystem, human survival and prosperity depend on the sustainable stability of the ecosystem. Once the biodiversity is fundamentally destroyed, the ecological balance will be broken and mankind will be doomed to extinction. Stepping into the 21st century, global ecological crisis becomes a most serious problem that human has to face with. Facing with the crisis, many ecological researchers try to find out the causes. The field of literature is also soon affected by the global ecological crisis. Some scholars around the world start to study on works with focus on the relationship between human and nature. Under its rich imagery, complex content and deep thought, Moby Dick contains a number of themes. American spirit, religious thought and so on are all its themes, but the main theme of it is the relationship between man and nature. Moby Dick, as the most representative work in the field of exploring the relationship between human and nature, has great practical significance in studying its ecological thought and ecological enlightenment (Wang Yufeng Xie Guoli, 2017). Therefore, it becomes one of the main works they have studied. Those studies, for the sake of ecological research, are mainly limited to the exploration of the dialectical relationship between human beings and nature. To a certain extent, their insufficient discussions and studies leave followers chances to do researches on this direction in depth. 3. Literature review 3.1 Studies on the Development of Ecocriticism Ecocriticism emerged in the mid-1970s as a literary trend of thought that studies the relationship between human beings and the natural environment. It introduces the concepts of ecology and ecological into literary criticism (Hu Tiesheng Chang Hong, 2008) and puts the concept into the spectrum of postmodernism discourse, which makes it become a postmodern thought that values difference, decentralization and pluralism. It (ecocriticism) deconstructs the privilege of human subject in modernity (anthropocentrism) on the basic idea of the genealogy of post-modernism discourse (Liu Wenliang, 2007). This lays the foundation for the literary criticism of ecocriticism, which deconstructs the traditional way of discourse and creates a new discourse system. As a new critical theory, more and more scholars paid attention to it. In the 1990s, it developed rapidly and spread to the whole world. Several ecological research societies were established. The most significant one was the society for literary and environment studies, founded in October, 1992. ”Ecological culture” and ”ecological batch” began to fill the academic field. And numerous ecocritical works were published (Liu Xuehua, 2010). In the 21st century, ecocriticism developed as an independent discipline, due to the global environment crisis. In that situation, more people started to calm down and reflect on life, production mode and the ideological and cultural roots for their survival and support. More and more works, on the theme of the relationship between man and nature, began to appear. And the purpose of ecocriticism is to explore the idea of ecologism in literary works, which can help to deal with the crisis. 3.2 Studies on the Contents and Values of Ecocriticism Cheryll Glotfellty, a leading advocate and initiator of ecocriticism in the United States, defines it as the study of the relationship between literature and the natural environment (Wang Nuo, 2003). He pointed out that the premise of ecocriticism is the interrelation and mutual influence between the material world and human culture. Ecocriticism is the consideration of human industrial civilization and the cultural exploration of the root cause of environmental crisis. It puts the anthropocentric values on trial and tries to eliminate dual opposition thinking. Its purpose is to achieve the unity of the subject and object, and ultimately advocate the values of ecological integrity. Ecocriticism holds that the narrow dual opposition theory and anthropocentrism in human culture have restricted the harmonious coexistence of human beings and nature for a long time. Dual opposition theory holds that there is no unity between the two opposite sides, but only a pure opposition. Under this way of thinking, people think that culture and nature, human and nature are opposite to each other. Human subjectivity is over promoted, making the relationship between human and nature become conquer and being conquered. Man becomes the subject not only in the separation with nature but also in the confrontation with society (Mao Wenfeng, 2008). Then anthropocentrism appeared. It holds the idea that man is the center of the universe and everything should proceed from the interests of the people. Ecological critics realize that anthropocentric view of development will cause great damage to the nature, for it extracts man from nature and treats nature as a conquerable object. The concept of antagonism between man and nature has caused the deviation of separating the whole and replacing the whole ecological world with human society (Wang Ning, 2005). The ecological environment must be cured by reconstructing the relationship between human culture and nature. The main task of ecological criticism is to review human culture through literature and to carry out cultural criticism. That is to explore how human thought, culture and social development patterns affect or even determine human attitudes and behaviors towards nature, and how they lead to environmental degradation and ecological crisis (Lu Min, 2006). Since our culture and literature, as a whole, tilts toward human society, ecocriticism calls for a cultural change. Through the review and reconstruction of culture, the change is needed to figure out how the narrow assumptions our culture to the nature limit our ability to imagine an ecological, sustainable human society (Wang Nuo, 2006). It is also needed to excavate the ideological and cultural root cause of ecological crisis to seek a way out of anthropocentrism and dual opposition theory. As a method of literary and cultural criticism, ecocriticism has opened up a new field for literary research. It puts one foot on the overall interests of the ecosystem and the other foot on the literature to explore the relationship between man and nature. 3.3 Studies on the Symbolism of the Pequod and Moby Dick Pequod was originally a race of native Americans known for their bravery, but after European colonialists took over the Americas, the race was slaughtered in an unprecedented and tragic manner and was finally wiped out by the whites (Liu Xuehua, 2010). Melville named the ship after the exterminated race, foreshadowing its final extermination. The Pequod can be regarded as a typical example of human action under the mode of anthropocentric thinking. It is the American society at that time, is a predatory shadow of that era, is also a typical human society. Whaling was a pillar industry in the United States and contributed greatly to the rapid development of its early capitalism. Americans alone killed more than 13,000 whales a year off the northwest coast (Shen Hong, 2010). The enormous profits of whaling made it at the time a completely prosperous business. But behind this boom is the relentless destruction of nature by whaling. The whaling voyage of the Pequod symbolized the aggression and plunder of capitalist industrial civilization to nature in the 19th century, and its final demise symbolized the fate of human conquest of nature. The symbolic meaning of Moby Dick is very rich, mainly in three aspects: capitalist system, the power of god and the nature (Chen Qiuhong, 1997). Moby Dick symbolizes the nature with great mysterious power, and its resistance to the whalers symbolizes the resistance of nature. Moby Dick is beautiful, mysterious, majestic and unconquerable, displaying great power. These characteristics are also natural characteristics. The omnipotence of Moby Dick is the very symbol of natural majesty. The purpose of whaling is to obtain whale oil and blubber, which can create wealth for human beings, so that Moby Dick become victims. Nature also becomes victim because nature also has economic value and is exploited and plundered by human beings (Liu Xuehua, 2010). In the face human attacks, Moby Dick is not only invulnerable and insidious, many times so that people amputated or even died. As a symbol of nature, it has a great and mysterious power that human beings cannot conquer. 3.4 Studies on the Main Characters in Moby Dick The Character of Ahab is full of contradictions. He is a man of strong will, indeed of the self-help spirit that Emerson espoused (Hu Tiesheng Chang Hong, 2008). His tenacity is developed after decades of whaling. However, the blind recommendation of the local masses and the complete obedience of the crew of the Pequod made Ahab a anthropocentric bigot. There is an inhuman side to Ahab, and many of his actions are deviations from the ethical principles of human society, such as refusing to help others of his kind. In the absence of humanity in Ahab, we see the shadow of the beast. ”He (Ahab) lived like the last grizzly bear to inhabit Missouri. Like the wild man in the forest, he hid himself in the hollow of a tree, where he spent the winter, and licked his paws, every spring and summer. So did Ahab, in his old age, with his mind shut up in the hollow trunk of his own body, living on the sordid claws of the dead body (Herman Melville, 2008).” As a member of the human society, he regards himself as a member of the animal kingdom. Instead of using the rationality of human society, he seals with the conflict with the whale from the standpoint of animals and the survival rules of the animal kingdom (Guo Haiping, 2009). In the chaos of ethics, Ahab is unable to dissolve the hatred in his heart from a rational standpoint and deal with the relationship with the sea, which eventually led to the tragedy of self-destruction. Starbuck#8217;s attitude toward Moby Dick is more rational. As a whale hunter himself, he is well aware of the risks involved. Therefore, he is able to keep a clear mind and practical attitude towards Moby Dick#8217;s behavior. He only killed whales as a means of making a living, but also as a profession. In Starbuck#8217;s eyes, the ocean is just a free means of production that can bring economic benefits to human beings. Nature exists only in its economic value, in the material wealth it can bring to mankind (Guo Haiping, 2009). Whalers kill whales for economic benefits, which reflects the economic ethics thought of taking human as the center and nature as the use of human. From a social point of view, the behavior of the whaler is understandable, even worthy of praise. That is because this kind of behavior to pursue material wealth or money growth is, after all, a behavior beneficial to society, which can promote the development and prosperity of social economy. Starbuck deals with the ethical relationship between nature and human beings from the standpoint of taking human as the center. One of his basic ideas in whaling is the economic ethics of nature for human use. As an elementary school teacher on land, Ishmael could not find a criterion for spiritual morality, so he wanted to find a strong moral code in the sea to maintain his spiritual existence and explore the nature and significance of life in the nature (Xu Ming Li Xin, 2006). He spent a long time observing and exploring nature, and his main purpose was to find the balance between man and nature. In Ishmael#8217;s eyes, there are many similarities between a sea dweller like a whale and a land dweller like a man. He gave whales a range of human qualities, so that what we see is not a spectacle of Marine life, but a realistic vision of human society. He not only equates the whale with human beings, but also thinks that whales have characteristics beyond human beings. In his eyes, whales are both steady and forethought animals. As a humble ordinary sailor on the whaling ship, Ishmael could not change the voyage and fate of it. But he positively examined the ethical relationship between man and nature from an open and multi-dimensional perspective with a careful observation and a rational attitude (Wang Yufeng Xie Guoli, 2017). From the initial suspicion that the white whale was devil in Ahab#8217;s mind, he gradually felt guilty for the cruel killing of the white whale by human beings. Then he developed a feeling of disgust for himself as a member of the whaling, fully showing his early awakening to the plunder and conquest of nature by human beings. Works Cited Herman Melville. Moby-Dick. Oxford University Press, 2008. Sacvan Bercovitch. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2003. [英]伊恩#183;乌斯比著. 五十部美国小说[M]. 王问生，沈蕾，译. 上海：上海译文出版社，1991. 陈秋红. 《白鲸》象征意义的文化阐释[J]. 外国文学研究，1997，(2). 郭海平. 《白鲸》中人与自然多维关系的伦理阐释[J]. 外国文学研究，2009，(3). 胡铁生，常虹. 对抗与和谐：生态意义上的矛盾与统一#8212;#8212;论麦尔维尔《白鲸》中人与自然的关系[J]. 社会科学辑刊，2008，(4). 劳伦斯著. 劳伦斯文艺随笔[M]. 黑马译. 桂林：漓江出版社，2004：152. 刘蓓. 生态批评研究考评[J]. 文艺理论研究，2004，(2). 刘文良. 生态批评的范畴与方法研究[D]. 扬州：扬州大学博士学位论文，2007. 刘雪花. 论《白鲸》中人与自然的关系[D]. 湘潭：湘潭大学硕士学位论文，2010. 卢敏. 美国浪漫主义时期小说类型研究[D]. 上海：上海师范大学博士学位论文，2006. 毛文凤. 人类中心主义的本体论背景及其范式[J]. 社会科学战线，2008，(7). 申红. 生命的呐喊：《白鲸》的生态启示[J]. 电影文学，2010，(20). 王宁. 文学的环境伦理学：生态批评的意义[J]. 外国文学研究，2005，(1). 王诺. 从生态视角重审西方文学[J]. 南京师范大学文学院学报，2005，(12). 王诺. 欧美生态文学[M]. 北京大学出版社，2003. 王玉锋，谢国利. 《白鲸》生态思想和生态启示探究[J]. 中南林业科技大学学报，2017，(2). 徐明，李欣. 论《白鲸》的生态意识[J]. 东北师大学报，2006，(6).