Tao Yuanming finally withdrew from officialdom. His family status was not high, so he was not prominent and he was tired of the troubled times. Seeing Liu Yu becoming more and more powerful, he was helpless with the changes in class and customs in the world, so he also observed Tao Yuanming's retirement. Pastoral cannot ignore the larger historical background.
Tao Yuanming
When thinking of Tao Yuanming, the image of "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely seeing the Nanshan Mountain" will probably immediately emerge: this is a poet who followed his own wish and returned to the countryside. .
However, is this necessarily the case? Generally, in people's memory, the poet's retreat is inseparable from the story of "not giving up for five buckets of rice": Tao Yuanming was in charge of Peng Zeling, and the postal supervisor came to inspect , the county official told the poet, "You have to dress up and go to see him." When the poet heard this, he sighed and said, "I can't bow down to the village man for five measures of rice!" So he hung up his seal and left. But this vivid scene appeared in the history book "Song Shu" of later generations. Tao Yuanming himself did not say so. In the preface to his famous essay "Returning to the Future", he only said that he became an official because his family was poor and needed money, but the official life with money was not in line with his nature, so he felt very uncomfortable, "deeply I am ashamed of my life ambitions." At this time, his sister who was married to the Cheng family in Wuchang died. He was anxious to express his condolences, so he left his job. If we believe the poet's self-report, then he did not hang up his crown and go home directly, but first went upstream from Pengze in today's Jiujiang to Wuchang. One thing, different explanations, the truth is actually simple: what people are most familiar with may not be the facts, but what the facts are, you really need to think more about it.
When you think about it, there is a lot to discuss. In fact, this is not the first time that a poet has been reckless and irresponsible. Tao Yuanming did not only serve as an official as Peng Zeling. The first time he became an official was as the so-called "Jiangzhou Jijiu". This official name is probably the provincial name of "Jiangzhou Jiujiu". According to the "Book of Song·Hundred Officials", this is "divided into the subordinates of Cao Cao's soldiers, thieves, warehouses, households, water, and armor", and his duties are very trivial. In addition, the governor of Jiangzhou at this time was Wang Ningzhi, the son of Wang Xizhi. The poet probably did not get along well with this arrogant son of the Wang family. The "Song Book" records that he "was unworthy of the official position and resigned and returned home after a few days." "A few days" means It didn't take long, although we don't know whether it was shorter than Peng Zeling's eighty days. The reason why the poet was able to throw away his hands repeatedly when he was unhappy was of course due to his capital. It is conceivable that he had certain support and some family background. Even though he was very lonely when he retired to the countryside in the end, he still had a lot of money. There are "more than ten acres of square houses and eight or nine thatched houses" (Part 1 of "Returning to the Garden and Living in the Fields"). On the other hand, the poet waited until he was almost thirty years old to become an official (there are many different opinions on Tao Yuanming's lifespan, ranging from more than fifty to more than seventy; here, the earliest and most common one is early sixty). Born in AD 365), he held a position with trivial affairs. At that time, he could only be regarded as a humble man with a low status, which is probably certain.
There is another section mentioned above that deserves a little attention: Tao Yuanming abandoned Peng Zeling's seat and ran to Wuchang to express condolences to his sister. Isn't the poet's home at the foot of Lushan Mountain? He How did the Cheng sisters (in the past, they were generally believed to be half-brothers and sisters, but some scholars believe that they are biological brothers and sisters) marry in Wuchang? Speaking of which, Wuchang belonged to Jingzhou in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River at that time, where Tao The place where home was in all its glory.
Jingzhou played an extremely important role in the Middle Ages. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was even more important. Because it was located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, it often formed a confrontation with the center of Jiankang in the lower reaches. At that time, there were more than twenty people who had served as governor of Jingzhou. Not counting the chaotic period in the last years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, most of them were powerful families in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. For example, the family of the Wang family of Langya had occupied the position for ten years, and the Yu family, a relative of the family, had occupied the position for ten years. The brothers held it for ten years, and the Huan family held it intermittently for more than forty years. Among these characters, except for the Yu brothers, who are relatives, they represent the power of the royal family to a certain extent and compete with Wang Dao, the prime minister of the central government. The rest, Wang Dun, Huan Wen, Huan Xuan, etc., all compete with the central government. Even the intention of disobedience. In the history of the Tao family, Tao Yuanming's most respected great-grandfather, Tao Kan, was also an important figure in the history of Jingzhou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Between the Wang family and the Yu family, he served as governor for almost ten years. It can be said that Jingzhou was once the place where the Tao family was very powerful. Although we don't know the reason why Tao Yuanming's sister married into the Cheng family in Wuchang, it is probably not accidental. Even for Tao Yuanming himself, Jingzhou was a very important place in his life experience. This has to talk about the poet's second career.
In the past, people did not pay much attention to Tao Yuanming's second career as an official, that is, his experience of serving under the powerful hero Huan Xuan at the time. Huan Xuan was a man who was excellent in both literature, Taoism and military strategy, and played an earth-shaking and important role in the history of the late Eastern Jin Dynasty. His rise to prominence can be traced back to 398 AD. At that time, Wang Gong, the governor of Qingzhou and Yanzhou, and Yin Zhongkan, the governor of Jingzhou, joined forces to fight against the regent Sima Daozi. As a result, Liu Laozhi, a famous general in the Beifu army, switched sides, causing Wang Gong to be defeated and killed. Huanxuan and Yin Zhongkan were originally friends in metaphysics debates. They took sides in this incident and took the opportunity to become the governor of Jiangzhou. The next year (399) Huanxuan attacked and killed Yin Zhongkan again, and the next year ( 400) became the governor of Jingzhou and took charge of Jiang and Jingzhou. Around the time when Huanxuan occupied Jiangzhou and Jingzhou, the poet Tao Yuanming entered Huanxuan's service.
The most conclusive evidence for this is several of Tao Yuanming's own poems. There are two poems written in 400 AD called "In the middle of the fifth month of the Gengzi year, the wind from the capital is still blocked in Guilin". Among them are the sentences "Since ancient times, I have been sighing about military service, I have only learned about it now", which shows that the poet was undoubtedly in an official career at that time; in the poem The "du" in "Du" refers to Jiankang, the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and "Guilin" should be near Xunyang. It can be seen that these two poems were written when the poet returned to the west after going to Jiankang, the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, not far from his hometown. When the wind stops. So where does the poet want to "return" when he "returns from the capital"? Of course, he is not going back to his home near "Guilin". How can there be any reason for an official to go home after finishing a business trip? He has to sell his business. Where can he go to sell the goods? In the second year, 401, he wrote a song "Xin Chou went on vacation in the seventh month of the year and returned to Jiangling for a night tour", in which the word "Huai Yi" appeared: "Huai Yi did not sleep well, and stayed at midnight "Shang Guzheng." This obviously corresponds to "going on vacation" and "night journey" in the title of the poem. Therefore, the information revealed in the title of the poem is that the poet returned to Jiangling after taking a vacation and passed through Tukou, which is not far from Wuchang. Jiangling, which returned from leave this time, should be the destination of the "return from the capital" the previous year. This is also the destination of Huan Xuan, who attacked and killed Yin Zhongkan, the former Jingzhou governor in 399, and who is currently occupying the place. Fuzhong. Considering that Huanxuan began to lead the governor of Jiangzhou in 398, it may be reasonable to speculate that Tao Yuanming had already joined Huanxuan's command before Huanxuan attacked and destroyed Yin Zhongkan in 399 and when he occupied Jiangzhou. In any case, judging from the poet's three poems, it can be determined that Tao Yuanming served in Huanxuan's office around 401 and two or even three years before that.
There is no doubt that this was the longest career experience in Tao Yuanming's life. So, what did the poet do under Huanxuan? We already know that "In the fifth month of the year of Gengzi, the capital was still blocking the wind in Guilin" written in 400 shows that he served as Huanxuan's envoy to Beijing, but his mission was What? Mr. Lu Qinli, one of the most in-depth scholars of Tao Yuanming in modern times, believes that the poet was probably working for Huan Xuan to request the court to lead troops to attack Sun En. Sun En's family was worshiped by the Five Dou Rice Dao. In 399, he took advantage of the chaos to avenge his uncle Sun Tai who was killed by Sima Daozi. At that time, he invaded Kuaiji with great momentum and killed Wang Ningzhi, the then internal historian of Kuaiji. The counties in Wudi were in turmoil. Although Sun En was repulsed by Liu Laozhi's army this time and returned to the islands around Zhoushan, he made a comeback in May of the next year. In this context, Huanxuan's request to attack Sun En was certainly justified, but things were often complicated, and Huanxuan's intention and ambition to take advantage of the opportunity to go east might not be hidden behind it. If Tao Yuanming was responsible for the mission of going eastward on behalf of Huanxuan, it would be quite important.
When Tao Yuanming ended his longest official career, it was not because he left on his own like the first Jiangzhou wine ceremony, but because his mother, Mengshi, died in the winter of 401. , this is clearly stated in the poet's "Essence on Commemoration of Cheng's Sister": "In the past in Jiangling, I was punished by heaven again." It can be seen that Tao Yuanming got the news of his mother's death from the governor of Huanxuan Jingzhou in Jiangling.
There may be questions as to why this longest career experience of the poet has been quite obscure and received little attention for thousands of years. Understanding the subsequent changes in the situation, we can probably speculate.
Just two and a half years after Tao Yuanming left Huanxuan and returned to his hometown to honor his mother, the entire situation changed dramatically: in 402, Emperor Jin'an issued an edict to accuse Huanxuan, and Huanxuan led his army to the east. Later, Liu Laozhi, who almost had the habit of defecting repeatedly, repeated his old trick and surrendered to Huan Xuan. Huan Xuan successfully invaded Jiankang, killed Sima Yuanxian, and took charge of the government; the following year (403) Huan Xuan usurped Jin, changed Yuan Dynasty to Chu; At the beginning of 404, another hero of this era, Liu Yu, who later succeeded the Jin Dynasty, launched an army to attack Huan Xuan. The two sides started fighting near Xunyang, and on the side of Liu Yu was the governor of Jiangzhou at that time. , Liu Laozhi's son Jiande General Liu Jingxuan. In the end, Huan Xuan was defeated and executed. In this series of changes, in the first half, the poet was a spectator, but in the second half, he stepped in and played a certain role. At this time, Tao Yuanming wrote a poem, "The Beginning of Zhenjun Joining the Army Sutra A Zuo", in which the poet said that although he was nostalgic, he still bid farewell to his hometown and headed east to join the army as a general of the Zhenjun; this Zhenjun General , today's researchers have roughly determined that it was Liu Yu, who was stationed in Jingkou at that time, and the Qu'a mentioned in the title of Tao's poem was not far from him.
Tao Yuanming
Tao Yuanming left Liu Yu soon after he stayed there, because at the beginning of the second year (405), he left a poem "In March of Yisi, he joined the army for Jianwei." "Du Jing Qian Xi" has shown that he served as a soldier of Jianwei General Liu Jingxuan. We don’t know exactly why he was transferred from Liu Yu’s subordinates to Liu Jingxuan, but judging from the close cooperation between Liu Yu and Liu Jingxuan at that time, it’s not very surprising: Liu Jingxuan is Liu Laozhi’s son. We mentioned earlier that when Huan Xuan went east to attack Jiankang in 402, Liu Laozhi turned against Huan Xuan and surrendered. However, he and his son Liu Jingxuan then deliberately attacked Huan Xuan. The incident failed, and Liu Jingxuan fled to He went to the north; two years later (404), Liu Yu, who was Liu Laozhi's old subordinate, launched an army to attack Huan Xuan, and it was Liu Yu who came back with a "handwritten call for Jingxuan". In this poem, Tao Yuanming has the line "I dream about the garden day by day, and I am separated for a long time", which already indicates that he is going back to his hometown. Indeed, in this year (405), Emperor Jin'an, who had been deposed by Huan Xuan, was restored to the throne, and Liu Jingxuan immediately dismissed him. This is probably why Tao Yuanming went to the capital this time.
About half a year after leaving Liu Jingxuan, the last period of Peng Zeling's official career, known as Eighty Days, began.
Having roughly understood the whole story of Tao Yuanming's appointment under Huan Xuan and Liu Yu, we may be able to understand why these twists and turns were intentionally or unintentionally obscured. The poet's service to Huan Xuan is something that Liu Yu should never mention but should try his best to ignore and bury. Even his surrender to Liu Yu may be a necessary gesture; and the poet's relationship with Huan Xuan and Liu Yu These entanglements between the two were actually difficult to face for most people in later generations who believed that Tao Yuanming was loyal to the Jin Dynasty. Although the two were rivals, they were no different in overthrowing the Eastern Jin Dynasty. They could be described as heroes who succeeded one after another.
Looking back on Tao Yuanming’s experience over the years, knowing that he worked under the two powerful men Huan Xuan and Liu Yu in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty and witnessed their earth-shaking actions, we should be able to understand and imagine the poet’s heart waves. Will he be an ordinary person who has no deep understanding of real politics? Will he be a simple and pure pastoral poet who is optimistic about fate?
There is no doubt that the poet has a worldly intention, and in his poems or It may be hidden or revealed; however, this kind of worldly intention is not just an empty idea, it must be implemented. For Tao Yuanming, if the ideal of serving the world had ever had a real chance to be realized, it was certainly not the first Jiangzhou Jijiu, nor the last Peng Zeling, nor even the joining of Liu Yu and Liu Jingxuan in the army - as discussed before This may be due to the efforts he had to make when he served Huanxuan. It would be too naive to expect the possibility of expression in it - but under Huanxuan, the longest official career in the poet's life .
Back to the moment when Tao Yuanming joined Huan Xuan. Why would the poet do this?
In fact, there are very good reasons to put yourself in the poet's shoes. First of all, we already know that Huanxuan occupied Jiang and Jingzhou at that time, and his power attracted people's attention; and Jingzhou was the place where Tao Kan, the poet's most respected great-grandfather, once lived and fought.
Secondly, from Tao Yuanming's personal experience, he should have a considerable affinity with the Huan family. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was the so-called clan era, and it seems necessary to observe the relationship between Tao Yuanming and Huan Xuan from such a perspective. The Huan family, as examined by historian Mr. Tian Yuqing, has the great scholar Huan Rong of the Eastern Han Dynasty as its ancestor. During the fierce struggle between the Cao family and the Sima family in the Cao Wei era, Huan Fan was killed, and the family was lonely and weak since then; Yi crossed the river and was a hero of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. His son Huan Wen was in power for a while, laying the foundation for Huan Xuan to eventually succeed Jin and become Chu. Even so, the Huan family was still despised by the high-ranking family. According to Shishuoxinyu, Huan Wen proposed marriage for his son to Wang Tanzhi, who was an official under him at the time. Wang Tanzhi did not dare to act independently and agreed to go home. Ask his father, Wang Shu, the grandfather of Huan Wen's daughter-in-law. Wang Shu was the famous hot-tempered Wang Lantian. He once wanted to eat an egg, but he couldn't hold it with his chopsticks. He threw it down and stepped on it with his heel, but it still couldn't be stepped on. So he grabbed it on the spot, put it in his mouth, bit it open, and spit it out. This time, Wang Shu was still very irritable. He originally liked Wang Tanzhi's son very much. Although his son was an adult and still hugged him on his knees, when he heard about Huan Wen's proposal, he became furious and burst out. He pushed his son away and cursed: "Are you stupid? Are you afraid of Huan Wen? He is only a soldier, how can he marry his daughter off?" Wang Tanzhi then reported back to Huan Wen and said: "My daughter's family has already chosen a husband for her. "
Of course Huan Wen was a sensible person and said, "I understand, this is your father's disapproval." Wang Shu used Huan Wen as a "soldier", which was a sign of strong contempt at the time. As for the Tao family, Mr. Chen Yinke believes that they originally came from a "low-class family" in the Xi tribe's mixed area, so they were regarded as the same and different by the gentry. They were still discriminated against because of their military exploits in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty. There is a story recorded in "Shishuoxinyu": Wang Huzhi was very poor when he lived in Dongshan, Kuaiji. At that time, Tao Kan's son Tao Fan sent him a boatload of rice, but he was rejected. Wang said bluntly: " If I, the Wang family, don’t have rice to cook with, they will go to Xie Shang of the Xie family to ask for it, and I don’t want the rice of the Tao family.” Mr. Yu Jiaxi, who has studied Shishuo Xinyu very well, analyzed this: “Because Tao’s original version. Coming out of a poor family, although Shi Xing (Tao Kan) made great achievements, Wang and Xie Jiaer could not help but regard him as a veteran. "The most noteworthy thing is this record in Shishuo Xinyu: Yuan Hong began to write "Ode to the Eastern Expedition". , all of them are Tao Gong (Tao Kan). Hu Nu (Tao Fan) lured him into a small room. He raised his white sword and said: "The great deeds of our ancestors are like this. Why did you ignore them when you wrote "Ode to the Eastern Expedition"?" Hong was embarrassed and had no idea, so he replied: "I have a great road." "Gong, why is there no such thing?" He recited: "A hundred refinements of fine gold can be used to cut people. The merits of Changsha are praised by history."
Regarding this text, Liu Xiaobiao cited the record in another history book "Xu Jin Yangqiu" when he annotated "Shishuo Xinyu": "Zhengfu", all the famous names across the river. When Huan Wen was in Nanzhou, Hong said to everyone: "I will never be as good as Huan Xuancheng (Huan Wen's father, Huan Yi)." At that time, Fu Tao was in Wen's mansion, and he talked to Hong Shan and tried to remonstrate with him, but Hong laughed and didn't answer. The eloquent secret is used to warm up, and the warmth is very indignant, and it is used to promote the literary sect of the time. I also heard that this poem has a sound, and I don't want to be exposed to it. Afterwards, we traveled to Qingshan for a drink, and when we returned, we were told by the public that we were all in danger. A few miles away, I asked Hong: "I heard that you wrote "Ode to the Eastern Expedition", and many of them were called sages. Why is it not as good as that of the family prince?" Hong replied: "Since the title of respected duke is not something that lower officials dare to use, it is not mentioned. Don't dare to show your ears.
"Wen Naiyun: "Why do you want to say something?" Hong immediately replied: "Fengjian Sanlang, either search or quote. Although the body can perish, the Tao cannot perish. Then when it comes to the Xuancheng Festival, faith means permission. "Wen Xuan stopped. Obviously, the two accounts are very similar. We don't need to pursue whether the two are in full glory or whether they have happened before. The stories of the Huan and Tao families can have such entanglements, revealing the relationship between the two families. At that time, the status of the high-ranking families was different from each other. As far as Tao Yuanming was concerned, his family had been a national honorary minister since his great-grandfather Tao Kan, but it had declined in the poet's generation. As a descendant of the old family, Tao Yuanming's self-identity may be very much that of his ancestors. He is proud of himself, but in actual circumstances this is far from the case. He is not respected by the high-ranking family, which is quite similar to the Huan family. This may be the basis of a spiritual agreement between Tao Yuanming and the Huan family.
Tao Yuanming
Speaking of family, further down the line, among the family figures that Tao Yuanming admires, the second most admired family member is his maternal grandfather Meng Jia, who is from a prominent local family in Wuchang. He was a celebrity at that time. When Tao Kan was in Jingzhou, he married his tenth daughter. The fourth daughter born to them was Tao Yuanming's mother, Meng. Meng Jia worked under Huan Wen, and they had a close relationship. Tao Yuanming was his maternal grandfather. There are many references in the biography, such as a very famous anecdote: "Wen Chang asked you: 'What is so good about wine that Qing likes it?' You smiled and replied: 'Ming Gong, but you are not interested in wine. ’ He also asked the prostitute, ‘Silk is not as good as bamboo, and bamboo is not as good as meat.’ The prostitute replied, ‘It’s getting closer to nature. '"This biography was written during the period when the poet was worried about the death of Tao's mother Meng. As mentioned above, the situation was undergoing great changes before and after. Huan Xuan moved eastwards until the last generation of Jin and Chu was established. Looking at this as a background, It’s hard to say whether the poet who once served in Huanxuan’s writing about the past events of his grandfather Meng Jia and Huan Wen had any other meaning besides showing his understanding and concern for the relationship between his family and the Huan family, even if we don’t go too far. Let's speculate. Judging from this relationship, Tao Yuanming's surrender to Huanxuan was at least a quite natural choice: among the poets, Huanxuan was the son of Huanwen, the chief official of his grandfather, whom he admired; in Huanxuan, this was the son of his father in his early years. The grandson of a military official. Again, the relationship between Tao Yuanming and Huan Xuan is not just old relatives. To put it more grandly, it can be said that Tao Yuanming also has a common language in thoughts and beliefs. Huan Xuan was a few years older, and his contemporaries received roughly similar education and had similar cultural upbringing.
Tao Yuanming said in his poem that he was "a young man with few people, but good travels in the Six Classics"; The family first established themselves in Confucianism. As the youngest son, Huan Xuan was very favored by Huan Wen. It can be imagined that he had a traditional upbringing. If you want to cite an example, you might as well look at Huan Xuan's interaction with the eminent monk Hui Yuan of Lushan at that time, recorded in "The Biography of Eminent Monks" 399. Before Huanxuan set out from Jiangzhou to attack Yin Zhongkan in Jingzhou, he went to Lushan to meet Huiyuan. At that time, he became a Buddhist and became a monk. According to the "Book of Filial Piety", "The hair and skin of the body are received by parents, and they dare not damage them. This is the beginning of filial piety." He also asked: "If you don't dare to damage, why cut it?" Huiyuan was also familiar with Confucianism and the "Six Classics" in the early days, and then he used the following text of "The Classic of Filial Piety" to "establish himself and practice Taoism, become famous in later generations, and show his parents , the end of filial piety also "answered:" stand up and practice the Tao. "Obviously, their debates were based on Confucian classics.