Tao Yuanming (365? ~ 427), also known as Qian, with the courtesy name Yuanliang and the nickname Mr. Wuliu, was born in Chaisang, Xunyang (near today's Jiujiang, Jiangxi).
Tao Yuanming lived in a very complex political environment during the Jin and Song dynasties. His great-grandfather Tao Kan once served as the Grand Sima of the Jin Dynasty; his grandfather served as a prefect, and his father probably had a lower official position and died when Tao Yuanming was young. In a society that values ??family status, the status of the Tao family cannot be compared with that of noble families such as Wang and Xie, but it is different from the humble families. Tao Kan came from a humble background and was ridiculed as a "little man" and regarded as someone with ambitions to usurp the throne. As you can imagine, his descendants were in a rather awkward political situation.
Tao Yuanming spent his youth in the rural village of Chaisang. "He was young and had no sense of customs, and his nature was to love hills and mountains" (Part 1 of "Returning to the Garden and Living in the Fields"). Sutra" ("Drinking" Chapter 16) is a portrayal of life at that time. He often said that he had to work as an official to make a living because his family was poor. This is certainly true, but it does not rule out the motivation of ordinary scholars to make contributions. This news is revealed in "The ambition is fierce and the world is far away, and the Qianhe is thinking far away" (Part 5 of "Miscellaneous Poems"). At the age of 29, Tao Yuanming served as Jiangzhou Jijiujiu, but resigned soon after. Later, Jiangzhou was summoned as chief administrator, but he did not take office.
In the second year of Emperor Long'an of Jin'an (398), Tao Yuanming went to Jiangling and became the governor of Jingzhou and the governor of Jiangzhou, Huan Xuanmu. At that time, Huanxuan controlled the military and political power in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and he was ambitious in trying to usurp the Jin Dynasty. Tao Yuanming once again had the idea of ????returning to seclusion. In "Xin Chou went on leave in July of the year of Xin Chou and returned to Jiangling for a night trip to Tukou" written in the fifth year of Long'an (401), he said: "The poems and books are plain and simple, but the forest and garden have no worldly feelings. How to give up?" Let’s go as far as West Jing!” That winter, my mother Meng died, so I went back to Xunyang to mourn. After that, the political situation changed drastically. In the first year of Emperor An's Yuanxing (402), Huan Xuan sent his troops eastward to attack the capital in the name of asking Sima Yuanxian, the minister of law. In the second year of Yuanxing (403), Huan Xuan usurped the throne and changed the country's name to Chu. In the third year of Yuanxing (404), Liu Yu launched an army to attack Huanxuan, entered Jiankang, and served as general of the town army. He took control of the power of the country and brought a glimmer of hope to the Jin Dynasty. So Tao Yuanming served as the general of the Zhenjun Liu Yu, and on his way to the post, he wrote "The Beginning of the Zhenjun Jingqu Qu Azuo". He has a conflicting mood. On the one hand, he feels that the time has come and hopes to make a difference: "When the time comes, we will meet in peace and quiet on the thoroughfare." On the other hand, he is nostalgic for the pastoral life: "Let's talk and change, and eventually return to work." "Sheng Lu." At this time, Liu Yu was concentrating his efforts on attacking Huan Xuan and the remaining forces, and Tao Yuanming might not be able to do anything in Liu Yu's defense. In the second year, the first year of Yixi of Emperor An (405), he was appointed as General Jianwei and joined the army as Jiangzhou Governor Liu Jingxuan. In August of this year, he requested to be appointed as the magistrate of Pengze County. He stayed in office for more than eighty days and resigned in November. The direct reason for resigning the county magistrate this time is recorded in the biography of "Song Book": "The county sent the governor to the post, and the county official said: 'You should tie up your belt and see him.'" Qian sighed and said: "I can't bow down to the countryside for five measures of rice." Villain! 'I will leave my post immediately." And the "Come Back and Come Back" he wrote when he resigned gave a more profound reason: "Come back and come back, please stay with me for a long time, and stay with me in this world. If you don't agree with me, why don't you ask for it?" Tao Yuanming fully realized that the secular world was contrary to his nature of advocating nature, and he could not change his nature to adapt to the secular world. In addition, he was disappointed with the political situation, so he resolutely resigned and lived in seclusion.
The resignation of Peng Zeling was the dividing line between the two periods of Tao Yuanming's life. Previously, he had been constantly choosing between the two social roles of a bureaucrat and a hermit. When he was in seclusion, he wanted to be a official, and when he was an official, he wanted to be a hermit. He felt very conflicted. After that, he strengthened his determination to live in seclusion and has been living a life of seclusion and hard work, but his mood is still not calm: "The sun and the moon throw people away, and there is no ambition. Thinking of this is sad, and I can't be still at dawn." ("Miscellaneous Poems") 》Part 2) In his poems, he repeatedly described the joy of seclusion and expressed his determination to live in seclusion, such as "If you like this drink, I can't go back" ("Drinking" 9); It is not inconsistent" ("Drinking" Part 4). Although this is his true feeling, it can also be seen as a way for him to strengthen his determination. In the later period, he was not without the opportunity to serve again, but he refused. At the end of the Jin Dynasty, he was recruited as Zuo Lang, but he failed. When Liu Yu usurped the Jin Dynasty and established the Song Dynasty, he was even more tired of politics. He implicitly expressed his thoughts on this matter in his poem "Shu Jiu". In his later years, he was poor and ill. "Tan Daoji, the governor of Jiangzhou, went to wait for him, and he lay down barren and exhausted for a while. Daoji said: 'A wise man lives in the world. If there is no way in the world, he will hide, and if there is way, he will come. Today's son will be born in a civilized world. Why do you suffer so much in this world?" He said to him, "How can Qian dare to look for talents? He has no ambition." Daoji gave him some meat and left. He wrote a "Self-Commemoration Essay" before, and at the end of the article he said: "Life is really difficult, how can death be like that? How sad!" This became his final work. After his death, his friends gave him the posthumous title "Mr. Jingjie". His good friend Yan Yanzhi wrote an edict for him, which is an important material for the study of Tao Yuanming. "Song Book", "Jin Book" and "Southern History" all have his biography.
Tao Yuanming's works were not widely circulated during his lifetime. (Liang) Xiao Tong collected and organized the collection, compiled "Tao Yuanming Collection", and wrote a preface and biography for it. Although the collection of pottery compiled by Xiao Tong has been lost, subsequent collections of pottery include the lost Yangxiu edition of the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Song Xiang edition of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty Seng Siyue edition, as well as some surviving Song Dynasty engravings: such as the ten volumes collected in Jigu Pavilion The original edition and the printed edition of Zengji were all re-edited on this basis.
Tao Yuanming's works include 121 poems and 12 poems, essays, praises and narratives. The authenticity of some other works is not yet certain.
Tao Yuanming was familiar with Confucianism and quoted many Confucian classics in his poems, including 37 in The Analects alone. He has the Confucian spirit of joining the world and attaches great importance to personal moral cultivation like the Confucians, but he does not adhere to the chapters and sentences of the Confucian classics, appearing to be loose and unconventional. He said: "If you are good at reading, you don't ask for a deep understanding. Whenever you have an understanding, you happily forget to eat." ("The Biography of Mr. Wu Liu") This is very different from the attitude of Han Confucianism. He praised Confucius, but he also tended to make Confucius into a Taoist. He was deeply influenced by the thoughts of Lao and Zhuang, and 70 of his poems used allusions to "Lao" and "Zhuang" in 77 places; the metaphysics of the Wei and Jin Dynasties also had an influence on him. But people are not addicted to Lao Zhuang and metaphysics. He is a very practical and down-to-earth person. When he was a county official, he would encourage farmers, and when he was a hermit, he insisted on hard work, and empty talk and idle talk interfered with important metaphysics. Home is very different. He lived at the foot of Mount Lu, very close to Huiyuan's Donglin Temple. His friend Liu Yimin had a close relationship with Huiyuan. Words similar to Buddhism can occasionally be seen in Tao Yuanming's poems, but he was by no means a Buddhist and was closely related to Huiyuan. Keep your distance. Buddhism is a kind of understanding of life. Tao Yuanming's understanding of life coincides with Buddhism. However, he seeks pleasure from real life and does not believe in the afterlife, which is very different from Buddhism. Although he is similar to some eminent monks in terms of not being afraid of death, their ideological background is still very different. He faced death with the attitude of "in the midst of the great waves, neither happy nor afraid" ("The God of Shapes and Shadows"), which is very different from the Buddhist's yearning for the paradise world. What he thinks about are major questions about the universe, history, and life, such as what is real? Why do virtuous people in history often have no good results? What is the value of life? What kind of life is perfect? How to deal with death? etc. His thoughts not only integrate the thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism, but also come from personal life practice, with unique perspectives, methods and conclusions; and the conclusions of his thinking are put into practice.
Living in poverty and advocating nature are the two main conclusions Tao Yuanming came to when thinking about life, and they are also the two pillars of his life.