Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming lived in different times. Su Dongpo is in a great era. That era was the freest in China's history. Both Wang Anshi's political reform and Sima Guang's abolition of the law have the same purpose, that is, to make Qiang Bing rich and the people live and work in peace and contentment. Su Dongpo is incompatible with their political views, but after all, he has a stirring and sincere heart, a soaring ambition, a burning passion and a positive and enterprising hope. Therefore, even if his official career is ups and downs, and his official career is difficult and sinister, he will not put on clothes, leave his official career and stay away from the world. Even if he retired to the countryside, he always walked into the secluded landscape with one foot and stayed in his beloved world.
Compared with Su Dongpo's time, Tao Yuanming was much happier. He lived in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, with frequent usurpations by rulers, vicious nature, aristocratic corruption, strict gate system, sharp class contradictions and extremely dark politics. At that time, the dark reality had forced out Ruan Ji and Ji Kang, such "seven sages of the bamboo forest", and Tao Yuanming was also rejected by the gate system. At that time, no matter how diligent and knowledgeable he was, no matter how excellent his poems and songs were, he could not display his political ambitions. This is the reason why Tao Yuanming's career is blocked, and it is also the social root of Tao Yuanming's refusal to stay away from the secular world.
Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming have different typical meanings. Su Dongpo is a genius and a rare generalist in the cultural history of China. With his magical writing, profound knowledge, wise thinking, noble personality, rich experience and great achievements, he built a monument in the hearts of people of all ages in the long history of Chinese culture! There is no doubt that his achievements are far from those of any modern people. In the words of Lin Yutang's evaluation, "Su Dongpo is a hopeless optimist, a great humanist, a friend of the people, a great writer, a great calligrapher, an innovative painter, a wine-making experimenter, an engineer, a hypocrite, a practitioner, a Buddhist, a great Confucian politician, the emperor's secretary, Brewmaster and a kind judge. A. His greatness lies in his superiority over anyone in the history of China.
Shan Ye's officialdom or hermits have more diverse talents, rich feelings, humorous language and open mind.
However, Tao Yuanming was only called a hermit at that time, and his literary creation was not highly praised because his plain and natural style did not conform to the gorgeous style advocated at that time. Xiao Tong was the first person to discover the literary value of Tao Yuanming. He respected both Tao Yuanming's personality and his literature. It was not until the Song Dynasty, especially after the promotion of Su Shi and Zhu, and the interpretation of his works, that Tao Yuanming truly established his lofty position in the history of literature, and has maintained it to this day, gaining world reputation. Tao Yuanming is also the representative of romantic life in Wei and Jin Dynasties and the spiritual home of China literati. When many literati are frustrated in their official career or tired of officialdom, they often return to Tao Yuanming's precious spirit of not bending over backwards for five buckets of rice, looking for new life values from him and comforting themselves. Bai Juyi, Su Shi, Lu You and Xin Qiji. Therefore, not bowing over five buckets of rice has become a fortress in the spiritual world of China scholar-officials to protect their freedom of choosing sources. And plain nature has become a lofty artistic position in their hearts.
Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming retired to the countryside for different reasons. Su Dongpo, who survived the Wutai Poetry Case, was forced to come to Huangzhou, a relegated place, and not only lived a hard and self-sufficient life; And at any time may be sentenced to death by the court, lost his life. Fortunately, Su Shi is a broad-minded person. As a very talented politician, in Huangzhou, he can still have fun in suffering, be content with poverty and humble, and neither disaster nor suffering can kill his firm belief in life. Living an idyllic life in Huangzhou only shows that he can't realize his political ambitions politically, and only cares about mountains and rivers when his official career is down and out. He is not only satisfied with the leisurely days of blowing wind, drinking and writing poems at night when the mountains are high and the moon is small, but he will also realize his political ambition one day.
The biggest difference between Tao Yuanming and Su Dongpo is that he resigned voluntarily and retired. As long as he wants, he can make a comeback at any time and get tired of eating the "five measures of rice". Tao Yuanming saw the decay of society, but he had no power to change it, so he had to pursue his own moral perfection. He saw the social crisis, but couldn't find the right way to save it, so he had to turn to the return of human nature. After retiring, Tao Yuanming is willing to be busy with farming, making friends and drinking every day, and live a self-sufficient and carefree life. This isolated life made him like a caged bird for a long time, and finally he returned to nature at will. Undoubtedly, after he retired, he enjoyed the literati taste of "entertaining love poems and wine, enjoying nature, enjoying family, experiencing agricultural interest, touching pain and never forgetting worries". Tao Yuanming's thought can be summarized as: to return to a "true self" by eliminating the acquired "false self" that has been influenced by the secular world. This can be found in his own poetic realm.
Comparing the lives of Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming, we can also find that they have many similarities.
Their talent, being a man, being an official and advancing and retreating attitude have always been regarded as models by domestic scholars. As far as talent is concerned, they are all young, studious, knowledgeable and excellent in poetry and prose, and they are all great literati in the history of China literature. In life, they can maintain their integrity and independent personality in adversity and never go with the flow; In terms of being an official, they can all insist on being an official for the benefit of one party; In their attitude towards life, they can maintain an optimistic and open-minded attitude even if they live a secluded and plain life. The connotation of Mencius' saying that "poverty is the only way to protect oneself, and goodness is the best way to help the world" can be well reflected in them.
Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming have similar life circumstances and aspirations of seclusion in the countryside. They all cultivate and build their own straw houses and live a poor life. But Tao Yuanming's free and easy is what Su Dongpo yearns for. It can be said that Tao Yuanming is pinned on the landscape, and Su Dongpo is pinned on Tao Yuanming, that is, both of them are pinned on the landscape. Su Dongpo has the word "Jiangchengzi" as evidence: "I was drunk in my dream. Only Yuan Ming. This is a previous life. Travel all over the world, but still plow. Last night, there was enough spring rain on Dongpo, and the black magpie was happy and the weather was fine. //The dark spring sounded on the west coast of Tang Xue. Beishanxie Xiao Xiheng looked at the pavilions in the south, and the lonely show shrugged the city. They are all in Xiechuan, I am old, so I am sending my age. " He also "implicitly included" Tao Yuanming's farewell words into the word "whistle": "Isn't it a pleasure to make children's songs sing along with Dongpo and thunder?" . All these show that Su Dongpo has the feeling that Tao Yuanming abandoned the prosperous and dirty world, and the waves are getting bigger and bigger, and he lives and dies unexpectedly. In Huangzhou, Su Dongpo really lived a secluded life like Tao Yuanming. In just two years and seven months, Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming wrote as many as 47 poems, almost equal to those of Tao Yuanming. "Only Tao Yuanming is the forerunner" shows Su Dongpo's yearning for Tao Yuanming. This yearning is actually Su Dongpo's unfortunate spiritual weapon. He saw another way of life and another kind of fun from Tao Yuanming.
Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming have similar life realms. Tao Yuanming's life realm is admired by Su Dongpo. Therefore, after Su Dongpo arrived in Huizhou, he can actively follow in the footsteps of Tao Yuanming, such as "Luo Fuzhi passed on the knot and sleepwalked in all directions." "I want to make nine yuan, and I want to go back to Yuanming alone." "This naive Sichuan Weng, too, has been with me for thousands of years. Draw me and Yuanming, and you can make a three-person map. " Sporadic poems such as "Join hands with Ge and Tao, return to hometown, return to hometown" can provide a glimpse of the poet's mind. Su Shi felt that he could draw a picture of three people with Ge Hong and Tao Qian, and leisurely pursue a pastoral life that is back to nature, simple and leisurely, and detached from things. This shows that he is determined to follow Yuan Ming's example. After unjust imprisonment, Su Dongpo "enjoys the countryside", which is a kind of rest for his soul. Therefore, we can often find the shadow of Tao Yuanming in Su Shi. Of course, objectively speaking, Su Dongpo's realm of life is getting more and more refined, but it is slightly inferior to that of Tao Yuanming. After all, their personalities and pursuits are very different. Because Tao Yuanming is a hermit, not an official of his own free will, Dongpo is very helpless. No wonder Dongpo was "deeply ashamed of his profound knowledge and wanted to teach it on the New Year's Day, just in case."
When Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming lived a life of "land to the tiller", their wives and concubines were able to live a poor, happy and humble life, sharing the hardships with them. Tao Yuanming resigned and returned to his hometown, living a life of "land to the tiller, self-financing". His wife Zhai has always been like-minded with him, happy, humble and polite. At the beginning of his retirement, they "plowed their husbands before hoeing their wives" and * * * made a living by "clearing land in the south and returning home". Then they built "eight or nine huts" with "square houses of more than ten acres", with willows and elms planted behind them and peach trees and plum trees planted in front of them. Even in Tao Yuanming's later years, his life became poorer and poorer, and he fell into a situation of hunger and cold. His wife Zhai also accompanied him without regrets. When Su Dongpo was demoted as the deputy envoy of Huangzhou Yingyong because of Wutai poetry case, he was short of money, unable to make ends meet, often worried about breaking the meal, and his life was very poor. Fortunately, his wife, Wang Runzhi, and his concubine, Wang Chaoyun, are willing to work with him in clothes forever and work hard to make a living. With the help of farmers' guidance, * * * built five huts together. With the help of his wife and concubine, Dongpo spent the most difficult four years in Huangzhou. After the death of Mrs. Wang Runzhi, Su Dongpo, who was relegated to Huizhou, gradually became "unknown" even in the bleak evening scene of "sitting in disuse for many years and not daring to return to courtiers". "I haven't seen a word of relatives and friends in my life, and I have no books to answer." My concubine Wang Chaoyun still never left, and she was affectionate to him.
Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming's pastoral life also has an obvious * * *, that is, they can praise labor, take part in productive labor in person, respect the working people, get close to them, live with them and have great fun. As literati officials in feudal society, they were able to leave early and return late, and they were able to mingle with the working people. This was not easy to do when social intellectuals despised labor at that time, and it was also rare in the history of China literature. Their labor itself has progressive significance, and at the same time, their pastoral poems have the flavor of labor life, which not only describes the poet's participation in labor, but also preaches the truth of relying on labor to eat. This view is really rare. What is particularly rare is that their feelings for the working people are very sincere. Su Dongpo said that he was "a well-educated farmer", and Tao Yuanming said in his poem: "Get along with each other, and the pot pulp is close to the neighbor", "The market is revived, and the grass is covered * * *. There are no miscellaneous words when meeting, but singing Malone. " This shows the close relationship between the two poets and the working people.