英文摘要 |
For the ancient Chinese literati, the Chinese garden is an eremitic enclave or a representation of their willingness to become a recluse. The Chinese garden is also a space for literati to present their thoughts. However, the garden’s social role has changed along with the political development of China since the twentieth century, especially during the Cultural Revolution. Although the transformation of roles is hardly documented or studied, some garden themes or imagery-embedded Chinese literary works do depict the changes. From these works, it can be noticed that the Chinese intellectuals’ identity seems to parallel the fate of the Chinese garden. From the Cultural Revolution up to present-day, some authors/intellectuals also propose the ideal scenery of a “New China” through the aesthetics of “correlative paradox”, which is an important aspect of Chinese garden. Liu Xinwu’s fiction “Ru-Yi” (1980) and Wang Anyi’s Tian Xiang (2011) are two of the most representative works in this regard. “Ru-Yi” allegorizes the Chinese garden’s paradoxical role during the Cultural Revolution as a place that imprisons the literati and consoles their spirit with its natural scenery, aesthetic elements, and cultural memories. “Ru-Yi” also shows the pursuit of integration of the elite and working class, while the communists were prosecuting the literati class and praising the working class. Tian Xiang, with a story set in a garden of the Late Ming dynasty, follows “Ru-Yi”’s pursuit of “correlative paradox” between social classes and between aesthetic styles, but with a more contemporary concern. By presenting these “scenes” and the “imagery” of related literary works since 1911, this article has implications for both the history of the Chinese garden and the history of the Chinese intellectuals’ spiritual pursuits. |