Allen Ginsberg and China

After the Second World War, because of their dissatisfaction of the extreme materialism and industrialization and the indifference of the government, some American poets of the Beat Generation turned to the East, especially turning to China to learn the classical Chinese poetry and the philosophy of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu implied in the poetry, which advocates the harmonious relationship of human beings and the universe, and incorporated what they learned in their own poetry to stress humanity and harmony between man and nature. Allen Ginsberg is one of the most revered Beat poets. He is quite familiar with Chinese culture and has assimilated its essence into his own poems. Ginsberg not only uses the Chinese-style approach of image juxtaposition but exaggerates it to the most so as to express his indignation to the dirty society to his heart’s content. The power of meditation of Buddhism and Ch’an has also transformed Ginsberg’s poems from the angry “Howl” to the calm and tolerant “Wichita Vortex Sutra”, and helped him reach the “beatific” spiritual realm.