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However, Tao finally selected a path of reclusion. He was an ordinary man just like anybody else, not destined to have a reclusive life from birth. In his whole middle age, his becoming an official and choosing reclusion demonstrated that he was reciprocally effected by escapist thought of Taoism and positive thought of Confucianism, and his soul wandered all the time in the two conditions of tearing in conflict and torture and becoming at peace. Thus it’s important to explore the cause of his final reclusive choice. There are some reasons for his reclusion as well:
He was influenced by Taoism and metaphysics. From the Three-Kingdom Period, constant social unrest and unceasing wars brought metaphysics into fashion. Scholars appealed to look for new philosophy of life from classics like The Book of Changes, Tao Te Ching and The Holy Canon of Nanhua. At that moment, the schools of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism coexisted, and they conflicted violently with each other. In this type of social and cultural atmosphere, young Tao Yuanming contacted with and accepted various academic thoughts of these schools more or less. These thought conflicts also had an impact on his whole living concept, creation ideas and even his outlook on life. Especially when he was getting old, Taoism increasingly influenced him and led him to seek a life above worldliness.
He was disappointed with social and political conditions. The official life of Tao ended in failure each time, which shocked and frustrated him again and again. In his declining years, he had to objectively rethink himself and consider the society and life standing to reason. From that, he found the inpidual so frail and small to the messy and broken community and ruefully said, “Human life is rootless like a gale, floating like the dust along a trail. It drifts and sails across the span of time, having long ago consumed its prime”(91). The putrid and turbid social atmosphere made his personal effort in vain. In such a corrupted society, Tao couldn’t achieve his dream, but he didn’t want to be complicit with the forces of darkness for being tired of bureaucratic struggle and seeing through the cruel and ugly intrinsic quality of feudal warlords. He realized that he was fit to be reclusive instead of being an official, and didn’t have illusions about distinguishing himself gloriously any more.
2.2 Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, the center of transcendentalism ideological movement. He was the last male descendant of a French ancestor who came to this country from the Isle of Guernsey. His character exhibited occasional traits drawn from this blood, in singular combination with a very strong Saxon genius. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1837, but without any literary distinction. An iconoclast in literature, he seldom thanked colleges for their service to him, holding them in small esteem, while yet his debt to them was important. He met Ralph Waldo Emerson during his student days, with the influence of whom he started to read the works of Coleridge and Carlyle, and study the Eastern philosophical thought. After leaving Harvard, he became a teacher in a private school with his brother, but he renounced soon. Although that teaching life was not so desirable, it honed his skills at observation.
On Jul. 4, 1845, Thoreau left home and settled at Walden Pond reclusively. In over-two-year reclusive life, he followed his nature and found out the real essentials of life. He finished the masterpiece Walden from this experience, which showed his ideas of advocating and returning to nature. Though he didn’t really explore the relationship between man and nature or soul and nature from a philosophical point of view, nature had a special significance in his transcendentalism. As a true nature lover, Thoreau was very familiar with Concord, his hometown, and wandering in nature is his favorite sport all his life. At Thoreau’s funeral in 1862, Emerson described Thoreau as a man who dedicated his genius with entire love to the nature of his native town, that he made it known and interesting to all reading Americans and to people over the sea.