Getting Rich from Legend of Zhen Huan

Tao Yuanming (c. 365-427), also known as Qian, Yuanliang, and Wuliu Xiansheng, was posthumously named Jingjie and was commonly known as Jingjie Xiansheng. Some say he was from Chaisang County, Xunyang Prefecture [47-49] (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province [1] [47]), while others say he was from Yifeng, Jiangxi Province [43-46]. He was an outstanding poet, fu writer, and prose writer from the late Eastern Jin Dynasty to the early Liu Song Dynasty. [1]

Tao Yuanming served as the chief priest of Jiangzhou, the military officer of Jianwei, the military officer of Zhenjun, and the magistrate of Pengze County. His last post was as the magistrate of Pengze County, but he resigned after more than 2 days and retired to the countryside. He is the first pastoral poet in China and is known as "the ancestor of hermit poets from ancient times to the present" [1] and "the founder of the pastoral poetry school". []

Tao Yuanming’s works include Drinking Wine, Peach Blossom Spring, Returning Home, and Biography of Mr. Five Willows. He is the first literary giant in Jiangxi. [1]

early life

Youyang Peach Blossom Spring Wuliu Square Sculpture

Tao Yuanming's great-grandfather may have been Tao Kan (there is still controversy, but the relationship between the two is certain [3]). His maternal grandfather Meng Jia was a famous scholar in the Jin Dynasty and married Tao Kan's tenth daughter. His grandfather was a prefect (there are two theories about his grandfather's name, either Dai or Mao [4]), and his father was a man who "lived in the wind and clouds, and was happy and sad". His specific deeds are no longer traceable. He had a concubine sister who was three years younger than Tao Yuanming. Later, she married a family with the surname Cheng, so Tao Yuanming referred to her as Cheng's sister in his poems and essays. Judging from his father's concubine, Tao Yuanming's family was not too bad at first. When Tao Yuanming was eight years old, his father died, and his family gradually declined. When he was twelve years old, his concubine mother passed away. Tao Yuanming later wrote in an article recalling this past event: "My kind mother died early, when she was still an infant. I was twenty-six years old, and you were only nine years old" ("Sacrificial Essay for Sister Cheng"). When he was twenty years old, his family was particularly poor, as evidenced by a poem: "When I was weak, my family was in poverty" ("Written on an Occasion").

Tao Yuanming "studied Confucian classics since childhood, loved quietness, thought about good deeds, cherished the idea of ​​solitude, loved hills and mountains, had a strong will, and was different from the mainstream." [5] The preface to Rong Mu says: "I heard the truth when I was a child." In the 6th poem of Drinking Wine, he says: "When I was young, I rarely dealt with worldly things, but I enjoyed the Six Classics." He received Confucian education in his early years and had the ambition to "travel the world with a strong will, and fly far away with wings high" (Miscellaneous Poems). In the era when Laozi and Zhuangzi were popular, he was also influenced by Taoist thought and liked nature from a very early age: "I had no interest in worldly things, and my nature was to love hills and mountains" (the first poem of Returning to the Garden and Fields). He also loved the zither and books: "I learned the zither and books when I was young, and I loved quietness. When I opened a book and read something, I would happily forget to eat. When I saw the trees casting shadows on each other and the birds changing their voices, I was also happy. I often said that in May and June, when I lay down under the north window and felt a cool breeze, I thought I was a descendant of the Xi Emperor. I was shallow and knowledgeable, and I thought these words were worth keeping" (Letter to Zi Yan and others). He possessed both Taoist and Confucian qualities.[]

Official career

Retreating to the Mountains (Chinese painting by Tong Chunfeng)

At the age of 20, Tao Yuanming began his career of traveling and making a living. The tenth poem of "Drinking Wine" reads: "In the past, I traveled far and wide, all the way to the edge of the East China Sea. The road was long and wild, and storms blocked the way. Who made me travel this way? It seems that I was driven by hunger. I worked hard to eat a little, and I had enough. I was afraid that this was not a good way to make a living, so I stopped and returned home to live in leisure." This is a recollection of his career of traveling and making a living. The details of the low-level official he took up in this period are no longer available. After a short period of home life, at the age of 29, he was appointed as the chief wine of Jiangzhou (the specific responsibilities of this official position are still to be examined), but soon he could not bear the official duties and resigned and returned home. Soon, the state called him to be the chief clerk, but he declined the job and continued to live in leisure at home.

In the second year of Long'an (398 AD), Tao Yuanming joined Huan Xuan's staff. At the beginning of the fourth year of Long'an (400 AD), he was sent to the capital as an envoy. In May, he returned home from the capital. He was blocked by a strong wind in Guilin. He wrote a poem "In the fifth month of the Gengzi year, I returned from the capital and was blocked by a strong wind in Guilin", expressing his desire to return home and his nostalgia for the garden and the old house. A year later, he returned to Xunyang to mourn his mother's death. After the three-year mourning period was over, Tao Yuanming returned to the government again with the idea of ​​"nothing to fear at the age of forty". He served as a military officer of the Zhenjun General Liu Yu. At this time, his mood was contradictory. He wanted to show his ambitions as an official, but after serving as an official, he still missed the countryside, "my eyes are tired of the different rivers and roads, and my heart is thinking of living in the mountains and swamps" ("When I first served as a military officer in the Zhenjun Army and passed through Qu'a").

In March of the first year of the Yixi reign (405 AD), Tao Yuanming served as a military officer for General Jianwei Liu Jingxuan and passed through Qianxi on his way to the capital. He wrote the poem “In the Third Month of the Yisi Year, I Was a Military Officer for General Jianwei and Passed Through Qianxi” which reads: “Looking at the mountains and rivers at dawn and dusk, everything is the same as before”, “I cherish the beauty of the world and the righteousness of the people”, “I dream of my garden and fields every day, how can I be separated from them for long”. After more than ten years of turbulence between officialdom and farming, he was tired of and had seen through the official life. [7]

Secluded life

Tao Yuanming

In August of the first year of Yixi (AD 405), Tao Yuanming served as an official for the last time, as the magistrate of Pengze. In November, Cheng's sister died in Wuchang. Tao Yuanming wrote "Returning to the Countryside", resigned from his post, and officially began his life of seclusion until the end of his life. At this time, Tao Yuanming's political attitude entered a clear period, and his thoughts also entered a mature period. Unlike his previous life of farming, he was conscious at this time: he did it, and he also understood why he did it. His previous pastoral life seemed to be that of a small or medium-sized landlord, but at this time he contributed more labor, that is, closer to the life of an ordinary farmer. During this period, he created many poems and essays reflecting pastoral life, such as five poems "Returning to the Garden and Fields" and twelve poems "Miscellaneous Poems".

In mid-June of the fourth year of Yixi (408 AD), a fire broke out in Tao Yuanming's home, destroying it completely and forcing him to move.

In the 415th year of Yixi ( AD), the court summoned him to be a Zuo Lang (official editor), but Tao Yuanming claimed to be ill and did not respond.

In the 418th year of Yixi ( AD), Wang Hong was the governor of Jiangzhou. Around this year or one or two years later, he became friends with Tao Yuanming. There are anecdotes about the two of them, such as measuring leather shoes and sending wine to each other in white clothes.

In the first year of Yuanjia (424 AD), Yan Yanzhi was the prefect of Shi'an and became friends with Tao Yuanming. There is an anecdote that Yan Gong paid for wine.

In the fourth year of Yuanjia (427 AD), Tan Daoji heard of Tao Yuanming's name and went to visit him. He gave him rice and meat and urged him to become an official. Tao Yuanming refused and did not accept the rice and meat. In the same year, Tao Yuanming died in Xunyang. After his death, his friends privately gave him the posthumous title of "Jingjie", and later generations called him "Tao Jingjie". [8-9]

Type of Work

Drinking Poems

Tao Yuanming

Tao Yuanming was the first poet in Chinese literary history to write a large number of drinking poems. His "intoxicating" tone of voice either criticized the upper class, where right and wrong were reversed and praise and criticism were the same; or reflected the dangers of official career; or expressed the poet's intoxicated mood after retiring from officialdom; or expressed the poet's complaints in hardship.

Poems of Reflection

Tao Yuanming's poems of reflection are represented by the twelve poems "Miscellaneous Poems" and the thirteen poems "Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas". The twelve poems "Miscellaneous Poems" mostly express his political depression after he retired from the world and his noble character of not being tainted by the secular world. It can be seen that the poet was filled with deep and deep sorrow and indignation. The thirteen poems "Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas" express the same content by chanting the strange things in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. For example, the tenth poem expresses and shows that his ambition to save the world will never be extinguished by praising Jingwei and Xingtian's "fierce will is always there".