The Great Clod: Notes and Memoirs on Nature and History in East Asia

by Gary Snyder

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet of Turtle Island: a meditative, scholarly memoir of Asia—“a book . . . not quite like any other but trademark Snyder” (Kirkus Reviews).

Over the course of his singular career, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, essayist, environmental activist, and Beat icon Gary Snyder has derived wisdom and inspiration from his study of Eastern philosophies, cultures, and art. Now, with this collection of eight essays, Snyder offers “a deceptively small book enfolding a lifetime’s worth of study” (Kirkus Reviews).

The Great Clod is the culmination of a project that Snyder began in 1969 with the essay ‘Summer in Hokkaido,’ first published in Coevolution Quarterly. In it and the subsequent entries, most of which are published here for the first time, Snyder weaves together elements of travel memoir and poetic insight with scholarly meditations on civilization’s relationship to the environment. The result is a seamless exploration of Asia that ranges from Hokkaido to Kyoto, from the Ainu to the Mongols, from the landscapes of China to the backcountry of Japan, and from the temples of Daitokoji to the Yellow River Valley.

Here you will find “a series of essays on Asia’s ecological history, combining culture and politics in a way that is, unsurprisingly, poetic and graceful” (Japan Times).

Genres: Essays, History, China, Poetry, Nonfiction, Japan, Nature

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Gary Snyder is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of Deep Ecology". Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the American Book Award. His work, in his various roles, reflects an immersion in both Buddhist spirituality and nature. He has translated literature into English from ancient Chinese and modern Japanese. For many years, Snyder was an academic at the University of California, Davis, and for a time served as a member of the California Arts Council.

Reviews

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointment. Gary Snyder enjoys a legendary status among American poets, but this book of mediocre essays benefits neither from his poetic craft nor his life experience. It opens with an intriguing confession:

"I got interested in China for the wrong reasons." That is, I thought I had come onto a fully engaged civilization that maintained a respectful and careful regard for the land itself, and the many other beings who already lived there. It turned out that I was wrong, but in a very complex and challenging way.

No doubt – but nothing that follows is complex or challenging. Instead there's only the mild ponderous tone of potted history. Here is Snyder on Daoism:

How then did mankind lose the way? The Daoists can only answer, through meddling, through doubt, through some error. And, it can't really be lost. The Ch'an (Zen) Buddhists centuries later addressed this with typical paradoxical energy: "The Perfect Way is without difficulty: strive hard!" China has been striving all these centuries.

Aside from the typical Zen humor, the yield of that paragraph is zero. What about the "remarkable insights" promised by the book flap?

The Chinese and Japanese traditions carry within them the most sensitive, mind-deepening poetry of the natural world ever written by civilized people.

I'm ready to be convinced, I half-believe this already, but tell me more.

The strain of nostalgia for the self-contained hard-working but satisfying life of the farmer goes along somehow with delight in jumbled gorges.

I feel like I'm reading the copy from a Celestial Seasonings tea packet. Add a block print of misty mountains and I'm there.

Humanistic concerns can be cultivated anywhere, but certain kinds of understanding and information about the natural world are only available to those who stay put and keep looking.

Snyder's admirers are legion, including some of my favorite writers. There are blurbs from James Hillman and Eliot Weinberger on the back cover, which is ironic because Weinberger is a master of the type of essay it seems Snyder is trying to write.

I would love to watch Snyder analyze a Chinese or Japanese poem rather than cull jumbled gorges of fact. I would love to listen to him talk about the life he's lived, the people he's known. I pre-ordered this book as soon as I saw it listed; I read it the day after I got it; and now I'll be giving it away.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snyder's particular vision of history, civilisation, progress and nature is perfectly summed up in a Japanese waka poem concerning the Siberian people called Gilyaks, who had a settlement in the far north of Japan:

The misery of the Gilyaks
and the Gilyaks, not knowing their misery—
today they laugh

Throughout these essays Snyder sketches a history of the relationship between (mostly) the Chinese state and its territory from the neolithic to the beginning of the Ming dynasty in 1368. His observations in particular regarding China's "long neolithic" and correspondingly short Bronze Age shed some light on the marked difference between Europe and East Asian civilisations' historical relationships with nature. Snyder charts the disappearance of specific plant and flower's names from East Asian poetry and literature, as high society became separated from the "house of life" and took a more panoramic view of the natural world—an observation that coincides with those of Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore among other writers. Later, examining the ramifications of Tang Dynasty changes to the tax base, he excavates economic and societal implications worthy of David Orrell and Roman Chlupatý.

Any historian that works hard to bind environmental processes into political and economic history—anyone who pays attention to the peasants—is bound to win some appreciation from me. After all, as Snyder aptly puts it:

Humanistic concerns can be cultivated anywhere, but certain kinds of understanding and information about the natural world are only available to those who stay put and keep looking.

In this case the strands that Snyder teases together, from social structures and gender norms through deforestation to geology, the ranges of flora and fauna and the evolving inflections of painting and poetry, reveal a master at work. This is not a comprehensive history of pre-modern China, and it doesn't attempt to be. Rather, it's an effort—and a success—at shedding light on the world's deep-flowing connections, and the ways that ever-greater mobility and velocity—the perpetual failure, even refusal, to stay put and keep looking—threatens to rupture them.

Snyder's subtle, sympathetic, expansive examination of one civilisation and its relations with nature can hardly help but imbue us with a certain awe of the Gilyaks—and perhaps envy. I wonder how many of us, Wendell Berry's crowd of "the individuated, the autonomous, the self-actuated, the homeless", knowing our misery, can laugh like them?

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not as stunning as some of his earlier essay collections, such as The Old Ways, Earth House Hold and A Place in Space, or the spectactular collection of interviews in The Real Work, this volume, The Great Clod, one of Snyder's most recent works (published in 2016), is a very informative addition to the Snyder canon.

Here, he focuses more on Chinese literature aesthetics (especially poetry) and landscape painting. The final chapter in particular was interesting as you can get a closer look at why Chinese landscape paintings, especially those related to mountains and rivers, became the basis of his most famous work, and what many have called his magnum opus, Mountains and Rivers Without End.

The collection does have an unusual structure. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it 'lacks cohesion,' as some other reviewers have said, but it gets off to a somewhat uncertain start. There is a very fine connection made between the original inhabitants of Hokkaido and some of the peoples on the Asian mainland (modern-day China) but the way the book begins, one gets the feeling that the main focus will be on Japan, which it is not. However, as many of you know, Japan 'borrowed' or 'stole' or perhaps the most politically correct way of saying it is 'incorporated' or 'absorbed' much of the art and literary aesthetics from China, just like the Romans took from Greece, including their gods, for which they just changed the names.

This volume is different from Snyder's previous essay collections in that the main focus is on Asia. I personally learned much from this short but fascinating work but if you are looking more for an ecocritical work by Snyder I recommend A Place in Space as a better alternative or The Practice of the Wild (which I have yet to read).
This one is more for those interested in Asian history, geography / topology, literature & painting etc.

[Bill Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some very interesting observations in this book regarding the development of Asian societies and the environment. A nice book to read a few pages of now and then, without being concerned about losing your train of thought.

[Clifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Snyder is a pleasure, but this hodge podge of essays needs more structure. There is a lot of wonderful information about the natural and artistic history of Asia, but the book would be more successful if the collection were more cohesive.

[Juliette Zhang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great writing. Very enjoyable read, especially the last three chapters of the book, "Walls Within Walls", "Beyond Cathay", and "Wolf-Hair Brush".

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book because I'd read two books by Gary Snyder and wanted to read more, and this is what the library had. I thought it was mainly about the impacts of civilization on nature in China, and how much China differed from the West in the way it treated nature. But Snyder also wrote about Chinese poetry and how it reflects attitudes toward the natural world. I especially enjoyed the chapters that focused mainly on the poetry of different periods in Chinese history.

I was extremely fortunate to read this book at the same time as I was reading Jane Hirshfield's book about poetry and Zen, Nine Gates (also from the library, yay MCPL!), as these two books cover somewhat similar turf but approach it from different angles. The combination of the two books was electrifying, and I made a lot of notes from this one. Now I want to learn more about both Chinese history and Chinese poetry.

I like that this book is a bit hard to classify; it's one of a kind and very personal, and I appreciate that. And I still want to read more Gary Snyder!

[Nuria Castaño monllor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A este conjunto de ensayos les falta orden y cohesión. Hay hermosas e interesantes explicaciones sobre arte, ecología, naturaleza, religión y demografía chinas, pero no hay estructura en la colección lo que resta valor al resultado conjunto.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading for the memoir, natural history, and quotes from Chinese classics (Snyder's translations are some of the most enjoyable); if he gets things wrong here and there that doesn't bother now as much as it might have if I'd read this a few years ago and then learned I'd been mislead.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small, oddly specific history of China.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book. Snyder can be read and reread.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A brief history of China, focusing on environmental concerns, philosophy, and art.

It's fine.

Recommended for anyone unsure of the pronunciation of "Ghengis Khan."

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Gary Snyder - he's one of my favorite poets. It was interesting to hear about his take on different aspects of East Asian history and culture, especially as related to the links between spiritual/religious history and environmentalism. However, I was hoping for more of a personal essay collection. In the end, this felt less "memoir"-ish (except for the introduction) and more just informational. It's a pretty deep dive for anyone except Snyder superfans or scholars of East Asia.