Su Shi and His Book - Literature review Example

The first two stanzas describe the stars, weather, skies, and wind with an accepting attitude. The writer knows that weather and the stars cannot be changed, so the narrator accepts the storm or calm weather as a fact of life, looking at the beauty of nature without any complaint. The unknown causes of the universe cannot be understood by the narrator, so acceptance and appreciation is the resulting attitude. After the passive description of the surroundings, the narrator states an old man’s wish to sail away.

This stanza is influenced by the Zihuangzi’s thought of a man’s impassive look at life. The old man wishes to sail, but both the narrator and the old man understand that is not the old man’s Dao. In return, the narrator’s suffering in the jungle is accepted as the narrator’s Dao. The trip was balanced by the acceptance of good and bad. Throughout this whole poem, Zihuangzi’s thought is the main influencing factor.