Nature as Thought — Symbolic Landscapes and Philosophical Echoes in Eastern and Western Literature: Take Ten Authors as an Example

This study investigates how natural imagery functions as a symbolic structure of thought in modern Eastern and Western poetry. Rather than treating nature as a mere backdrop, it repositions elements such as wind, cloud, forest, sea, moon, and autumn as metaphysical symbols that encode cognitive, emotional, and philosophical meaning. Employing an interdisciplinary framework that integrates semiotics (Peirce, Kristeva), phenomenological aesthetics (Bachelard, Heidegger), and Eastern philosophy (Laozi, Zen), the research offers close comparative readings of selected poets, including Bùi Giáng, Lưu Trọng Lư, Xuân Diệu, Matsuo Bashō, Rainer Maria Rilke, Saint-John Perse, Henry David Thoreau, and Haruki Murakami. The findings reveal that natural imagery in poetry is not decorative but operates as a dynamic symbolic system—where thought moves like wind, identity dissolves like cloud, and memory sinks into the sea of language. These motifs articulate a shared philosophical architecture across cultures: from impermanence to interior depth, from silence to spiritual resonance. Water, though not always foregrounded, emerges as a latent metaphorical principle that connects all other symbols. The study concludes that nature is not external to poetic thought but constitutes the very space in which thought breathes, dwells, and becomes form. Practically, the research offers interdisciplinary and pedagogical applications for literary studies, aesthetics, and symbolic cognition.