The Comparison Analysis of the Image of Dust in His Dark Materials and Tanjing

【Abstract】His Dark Materials took “dust” as the clue， discussed one theme that how to define the meaning of life. From the perspective of the author， the meaning of life lies in individual happiness. Tanjing is the only book written by Chinese and records Chinese Buddhism studies and this paper analyzed whether “dust” image in western culture and oriental culture symbolizes similar concepts.

【Key words】His Dark Materials； Tanjing； Dust image； Buddhism Culture

【摘要】《黑質三部曲》以“塵埃”為線索，討論了一個問題，那就是我們應該如何定義生命的意義。在作者看來，生命的真正意義在于個人的幸福。《壇經》是唯一一部由中國人撰述、記錄中國人佛學思想的佛教典籍，頗具代表性。本文意在對比分析在東西方文化中，同一意象“塵埃”是否有相通之處。

【關鍵詞】黑質三部曲 壇經 塵埃意象 佛教文化

1. Introduction

This paper analyzed the dust image in His Dark Materials and Tanjing with method of comparative analysis.The characters in His Dark Materials showed nobility in danger. And in Tanjing， the sixth Zen Hui Neng also directed the right path to lead us to get happiness.

Through the discussion of this paper， it can help readers interpret the difference of death aesthetics between cross-cultural environment and also have a deeper grasp and understanding of human nature.

2. An Analysis of dust image in His Dark Materials

In The Golden Compass， the Dust is an unknown particle and the Magisterium think that the Dust is evil and threats their reign. As the Dust surrounds the adults and childrens daemon settles their form during puberty， a crew of staff led by Mrs. Coulter started to cut the Children and their daemons away.

In The Subtle Knife， the conversation between the Dust and Dr. Malone revealed what are the Dust—they are rebel angels who helped human to get evolved and to gain wisdom so as to fight against the tyrannical reign of God and the Authority.

In The Amber Spyglass， the Dust finally showed as a beautiful visible particle which symbolize wisdom and happiness. In Mulefas world， they love the Dust， they call it sraf， and they believe the sraf from the oil is the source of happiness and the Mulefa s world is more like a peaceful heaven.

3. An Analysis of dust image in Tanjing

Because Tanjing is a giant master piece， the writer took the most famous and classic piece to analyze dust image and the meaning behind it.

The argumentation of explaining the concept of “dust” made Hui Neng overwhelmed Shen Xiu and get the seat Sixth Zen Master. Hui Nengs Buddhist verse was “The bodhis not in fact a tree， And nor as there mirror nor its stand. By nature all is vain and void， So where can dust ever go land？” Shen Xius Buddhist verse was “Our bodys just the bodhi tree， Our mind a mirror set on stand. We wipe them every now and then Lest dust should ever there go land.” （Jiang and Chen， 2009）endprint

Thus， Shen Xiu symbolize human as a mirror and the dust will all fall down on the mirror， and people need to wipe the dust all the time. While Hui Neng said that dust does not even exist so that people should not even care about it. Dust， which means trouble in citizen life here， wont bother those who care about their own joy from the bottom of their hearts.

Discovering the ones good nature， we believe we have to work things out for ourselves. It is a kind of artistic style of life you pursuit， without bounds of restrictions， live like a wisdom men （Nguyen， 2014）.

4. Conclusion

Pullman built a magical world and at the same time he started a thorough discussion about human growth and human develop.（Li， 2013）

As we can see， although “dust” this image refers to different things in His Dark Materials and Tanjing， the former one Dust refers to wisdom while in the latter one the dust image refers to trouble in citizen life. However， these two master pieces both showed one universal truth that individual happiness is more valuable than obeying the so-called beliefs which do harmful things rather than good things.

All in all， whether in western culture or in oriental culture， we should hold our goodness and kindness， just like Lyra and Will did in His Dark Materials and Hui Neng did in his poems. The meaning of life does not exists in how long do we live but in how do we live. We should cherish every living moment and try to be happy every day， so that we could achieve ultimate peace.

References：

[1]Pullman P.The Amber Spyglass[M].Alphascript Publishing， 2010.

[2]Pullman P.The Golden Compass[M].2003.

[3]Pullman P.The Subtle Knife[M].BBC Audiobooks，2007.

作者簡介：牛韜（1993-），女，漢族，山西太原人，山西財經大學研究生，研究方向：外國語言學及應用語言學。endprint