LA TEORÍA DE LA COMUNICACIÓN HUMANA EN LAS RELACIONES

Important clues that illustrate Tang’s understanding of nature as a learning-device are found in a chapter of A Green World Tour entitled “John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt”.103 _{The chapter constitutes the conclusion of the American travel account,}

and can be seen as the author’s final word on Yosemite National Park. It represents an intellectual portrait of John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt, in Tang Xiyang’s words two of America's “avant-garde of natural protection” (ziran baohu de xianqu 自 然保护的先驱). Tang first addresses John Muir (1838 – 1914), the American naturalist,

102 _{Ban Gu, biography of Liu Xiang, Han shu, juan 36, p.1932 Han shu [History of the Han dynasty],}

Ban Gu 12 vols., Beijing: Zhonghua, 1970. Translation, see: Murck 2000: 116.

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author, and early advocate of wilderness preservation in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California, have enjoyed a readership counted in the millions, while it was partly his relentless efforts that helped create nature reservations such as Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and others. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. One of the most well-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, was named in his honor.104

His [Muir’s] excursions prove an old Chinese proverb: “One learns as much on a journey of ten-thousand li as from reading ten-thousand books.” (行万里路，读万卷书) Nature is the greatest book of them all. It contains everything we and the world will ever need. Only after we have extensively experienced hardships and dangers, have had firsthand experience, diligently spent time in contemplation, given it all our love, will we be able to understand this book. John Muir was such a person, and this is way he advanced many new thoughts that natural scientists, artists and philosophers had not advanced before. (CCC 309)

This rather telling understanding of “nature as a book”, an idea that the author expresses repeatedly throughout the course of his text, provides insight into Tang’s understanding of nature, and of the understanding of nature and of its relationship to man. During his excursion of Yosemite National Park, for example, he writes that “Nature is a mighty book, a deep book, a book that one can never finish reading.” (The world’s greatest trees 世界最大的树, AGWT 1993: 244)

It has to be noted that the idea of “nature as a book” originates in Judaeo-Christian theology. Although Christianity draws a sharp distinction between earthly, sinful nature and divine eternal nature (paradise), it was still assumed that God’s power manifested itself in His creation. Glacken argues that this understanding was expressed most vigorously in the teachings of Augustinus (354-430) who said: “Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Note it; read it. God,

104 _{On John Muir’s life, his writing, and his activism, see: Oelschlaeger 1991: 172-204; Gifford 2006;}

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whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink; instead He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that? Why, heaven and earth shout to you: 'God made me!' (Glacken 1976: 204) Glacken concludes that “The book of nature becomes a commentary [to the book of revelation, the Bible], further substantiation of the truth of the revealed word.” (ibid: 203) With the rise of modernity, the modernist mindset, and the pivotal breakthroughs in astrophysics, biology and geology, the idea of nature as a book was increasingly replaced by the idea of nature as a machine whose inner workings could be measured, predicted and even changed.105 By the 20th century, the link between nature and metaphysics had been completely severed, so that for example David Bloor in Knowledge and Social Imaginary developed an understanding of science that regarded nature as morally empty and neutral, while Richard Rorty in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature understands nature as inherently meaningless in itself and morally neutral. Already in 1981, Hans Blumenberg in his Die Lesbarkeit der Welt wrote that the notion of nature as a book was an idea now so alien to us, the contemporary reader, that only with great difficulty we could put ourselves in a meaningful context of understanding to such an idea. 106

Hence, the notion of “nature as a book” was very much outdated by the time Tang wrote the first edition of his Green World Tour in 1993. What is important is that his view of nature as a book conceptualizes nature as an opportunity for learning. Nature is seen as something with a purpose, as opposed to something that just is. In this understanding, nature serves both as the stage as well as the mentor for a quest towards understanding and wisdom, a quest whose goal can be achieved through personal practice and subjective experience.

It becomes clear then that the reason why Tang holds Muir in such high esteem is not just because he loved nature, but because through his immersion within nature and through his love for nature, Muir developed the necessary moral character to affect positive societal change, in his case the establishment of the US National Park

105 On the development of this thought, see for example: Taliaferro & Evans 2011: 4ff for Charles Darwin, generally. Pepper, David 1996: 135-148).

106 _{For further information of the notion of “nature as a book”, see: Glacken 1976: 203 ff., Mortensen}

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system. It has been mentioned that John Muir founded the Sierra Club, one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. However, Tang’s chapter fails to address the very real conflict that arouse between John Muir and Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the United States Forest Service and a leading spokesman for the sustainable use of natural resources for economic purposes. His position eventually clashed with Muir's, highlighting two diverging views of the use of the country's natural resources. Pinchot saw conservation as a means of managing the nation's natural resources for long-term sustainable commercial use. (The “conservationist” position) Muir on the other hand valued nature for its spiritual and transcendental qualities. In one essay about the National Parks, he referred to them as “places for rest, inspiration, and prayers.” Muir often encouraged city dwellers to experience nature for its spiritual nourishment. (The “preservationist” position) In Tang’s account, the conflict exists only between preserving natural parks as a place to “love nature”, in his words, as an educational place, and as the object of greed to extract natural resources. In other words, the chapter juxtaposes Muir’s wisdom with the profane and base desires of mainstream American society. (CCC 311)

The chapter places great emphasis on the interplay between John Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt, and re-tells the famous story of the meeting between John Muir Theodore Roosevelt. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt accompanied Muir on a visit to Yosemite. While traveling to the park, Muir informed the president about the state’s mismanagement of the valley and the rampant exploitation of the valley's resources. Even before they entered the park, he was able to convince Roosevelt that the best way to protect the valley was through federal control and management. After entering the park and being overwhelmed by its natural beauty, the president asked Muir to show him the real Yosemite. Muir and Roosevelt set off largely by themselves on horseback, and camped in the wild country. The duo talked late into the night, slept in the brisk open air of Glacier Point, and were dusted by a fresh snowfall in the morning.107 _{Tang’s version of the historic event emphasizes the}

contrast between the sage-like yet slightly awkward Muir and the adventurous Rough Rider Roosevelt, a man of the world.

107 _{Nash 2001: 122-181 provides a vivid and detailed description of the relationship and interaction of}

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Muir was an unrefined man of the wilds (cunyeren 村 野 人), not accustomed to live alongside such a great and famous statesman. Yet he knew that Roosevelt was a man of many talents, strong and courageous while at the same time amiable and approachable. (CCC 313)

During their meeting, the US President grows so impressed with the sage-like Muir, his calm yet resolved personality and his deep understanding of the wilds, that by the end of their wanderings, he returns to Washington a convinced protectionist, ready to throw his political weight behind Muir’s cause, or in Tang’s words “to wrestle the mountain and valleys from the axes of the woodcutters, to save it from being trampled on by flocks of sheep.” (CCC 313) What is noticeable is the reversal of authority that Tang aims for in his representation of this historic encounter. Roosevelt, the powerful ruler of a nation, is willing to let himself being guided by the man with superior character. It stands to reason that Tang Xiyang views himself, or at least his students – the future generation of leaders – as fulfilling the same role as Muir, as wise scholars who are able to lend loyal enlightened advice to the country’s rulers. This is indicated in a paragraph that can be read as a programmatic statement that points to Tang’s intentions to follow in Muir’s footsteps:

Young friends may envy me, saying, “You have been to so many places, seen so many things and formed many ideas.” Actually, I am far from being satisfied; I have seen only a small part of the natural world. There are so many things I have not seen. Though I am very eager to see them with my own eyes and understand them, I am getting old. I have to leave this task to my young friends to finish. This book can guide only a short way; the rest of the journey you must take by yourselves. I believe that among you great travelers, adventures, scientists and pioneers in protecting nature, as well as Chinese John Muirs, Theodore Roosevelts and Peter Scotts, will appear.

The world belongs to you. All that is rare and beautiful belongs to you. (ibid)

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