Ecological  Analysis  of  Avatar and  its  Enlightenment   —From  the  perspective  of  Lao-­‐Tzu’s  thoughts  

Name:王静   From:  Xi’an  International  University   Email:[email protected]   Phone  Number:  18182449140     Abstract:       The ecological ideology embodied in “THE TAO TEH KING”, reflects the correct value orientation in present society. The profound understanding of natural law in the book requires the harmonious development between the society and humans. Typical ecological film “Avatar” affirms the nature’s position and value on the earth, advocates the respect for natural law, disapproves of deliberate destruction of organic structure of nature to satisfy the greed and desire of humans. Thus, the ideas reflected in Avatar exactly corresponds with ecological view proposed by Lao-Tzu two thousand years ago.

Key words:

Ⅰ

“THE TAO TEH KING”

Introduction:

Ecology

Nature

A 3D film “Avatar” directed by Hollywood director James Cameron shown in the world, in 2009 December .Once released, it obtained a highly box office and excellent reputation. The film is recognized as the

ecological literature show the theme of

protecting ecological equilibrium in an astonishing way. Bubbled with a strong awareness of environmental protection and ecological consciousness, which is worth a careful analysis both from the content and thought. This paper construed Ecological way of “Avatar” from the perspective of Lao-Tzu and its enlightenment to today's environmental protection.

Ⅱ The ecological thought in Taoism Taoism contains a lot of ecological wisdom, guide people live in world in the course of nature. Imitation nature is the most important thought in “Tao Te Cing”, briefly, it tells us to respect the creature and explore resources in a moderate way. “Tao Te Cing” also advocates the harmony of“Human Beings and Nature ” which is indispensable in today’s ecological society ,the relationship between man and nature have profound ecological wisdom,. In self-requirements，Taoism puts forward the ecological norms，including how to keep oneself under the humble view of modest，how to keep the frugal moderated view，

and how to keep the peaceful and quiet concept． We can say, the Taoist’ thought of ecological environment is the Chinese traditional culture in the most concentrated expression of environmental awareness

Ⅲ Ecological Analysis about Avatar 3.1 The whole ecological environment The film shows picturesque scenery of Pandora. The planet has all kinds of living creature, abundant environment. Neville people establish a harmonious relationship with nature. There are primeval forests and towering trees, the cliff float on the air, pink plants, the seeds of trees which float on the air just like medusa. There have beautiful night scene and great waterfall. This kind of ecological environment is very special. Helicoradian—a unique life entity, it will contract once you touch it. Direhorse, which has six legs is Neville people’s mounts. All of these consist of the whole ecological environment on Pandora.

3.2 The harmonious relationship In the film "Avatar", the plot warns audience, each creature

constitutes such a beautiful ecological environment in the whole of nature. Neville people always think human and nature creatures are equal, they should keep a harmonious relationship. In the film, the biggest difference between Neville people and humans lays on ecological view, not on their bodies or the basic necessities of life. Neville people deny that humans are the masters of the ecological environment, and they strongly oppose to throttle all the lives. Under the primitive ideas, Pandora is able to keep balance. Generally speaking, people always go for their own private interests when they considering the issues, often refused to value nature from the ecological perspective. Unobtanium—a rare ore. In order to get this kind of ore, greedy people begin to invade Pandora. They hope it can solve the increasing energy crisis, however, human ruined the planet, bring this planet a devastating disaster. Although there is no advanced technology, Neville people work together, finally, they defeat humans with help of all the creature on the Pandora. Vanquished humans are sent back to the earth, only few are choosing to stay. From the film, we know that people can get the help from nature only if they establish a harmonious relationship with nature. From the ecological perspective, man and nature are not

supposed to make use of each other .They are dependent, this dependent relationship is established gradually with the development of man and nature, for example, Neville people in “Avatar”, separates from the humans, they can’t communicate with human since they don’t have the same language and living environment. On the planet Pandora, there are a lot of biological elements, whether it is plants, animals, or air, these are the manifestations. Human and nature are two important and indispensable parts of the process, in the process of human development, it forms a relatively unique development concept that human thought nature can be conquered, man separated from nature, plunders and utilizes in order to develop themselves .Consequently, it brings environmental crisis. Environmental protection has become an important subject in the process of human social development. The film "Avatar", doesn’t like other science fiction films which trumpet the rapid development of science and technology, praises on the results of modern industrial revolution. Neville people can maintain a balance of ecological environment, living under beautiful circumstances, because they don’t have highly developed industry and technology. In today's society, Environmental problems are becoming more and more serious all

over the world, there are a lot of damage to the environment caused by humans, such as the depletion of water in many areas, climate pollution, the greenhouse effect. All of these are due to excessive exploitation and utilization of environmental resources. Therefore, there is a critique of human activities in this film. Of course, this criticism mainly comes from the perspective of the environmental awareness which is not only in the human’s mind, but also in Neville people. When human resources dry up, in order to find more, they start to exploit on Pandora, not so much for exploitation as for plunder. Confront with the bullets of human, Neville people don’t flinch, by virtue of their wisdom and will, they co-operate closely to meet the challenges, finally defeate human. Of course, there is a very strong environmental awareness, this awareness support their life.

3.3 The ecological ethics In "Avatar" ,the most crucial point is that the movie shows a fantasy world, perhaps this dream is delineated by human, but affluent ecological environment is just an irony of the modern society .This irony also appears in the motivation of human exploitation, because there have been the energy crisis, in

order to alleviate this crisis they plunder Pandora, this way of thinking is wrong, it is a kind of shifting environmental destruction behavior, mankind will never stop the desire, there will have many "Pandora" destroyed. So this film wants to express an idea to protect the environment, an ecological ethics. In the development process, human should get along well with nature. Have a harmonious attitude towards nature. In comparison with Neville people, human has less respect for ecology and nature, because we lack the soul and essence of environmental protection, so the desire will never let human to establish a good relationship with nature, communicated with nature. The ecological ethics is the key of the whole movie. For human, is also worth considering.

Ⅳ. The enlightenment to today’s environment How to deal with the relationship between man and nature in a better way? The attitude and the way toward nature In "Avatar" give us a lot of enlightenment, especially the two value orientations for the natural environment, let us see the pros and cons of these, inspired us a deeper exploration. Neville people always feel thanks when they got natural sources to survive it is the virtue that human should have. They only know

how to obtain. Only if human changed the attitude towards nature, they can get along well with nature. Secondly, make friends with nature, does not mean that revere as primitive society, but to exploit in a moderate way, do not destroy its ecological system, against the natural law. Moreover, the film gave people a signal that the nation of nature can always get the help of nature. Although it just a kind of fictive dream, in reality, we do feel that the people’s recklessness of nature bring disaster. With the advent of this film, human are becoming more and more aware of the significant of solving environmental problem. And only human and nature lived in a harmonious relationship, can truly solve the problem of future development. Therefore, at the beginning of the film released, it caused a strong response from the audience. At the same time, the film's release also give us a

warning

, let us to see the vices human more clearly

and make people began to pay more attention to the promotion of environmental protection

Ⅴ

Conclusion

As shown in the" Avatar", with the development of the society and the progress of industrial civilization, human’s

exploitation of nature has taken into an outrageous level, the ecological balance is in jeopardy. Many ecological literatures only express the ideal of human harmony with nature when the sense of crisis is breeding. Lao-Tzu can deeply realized the interdependent relationship between human and nature when people get along well with nature .He can see the nature and human society's rules two thousand years ago, Taking "Dao" as the core, the authors uses the good method to deal with the relationship between people and nature. This advanced ecological thought has a long value to guide later generations dealing with the relationship between human society and nature.