Liaoning TV University Zhang
Tao Yuanming lived in the turbulent Eastern Jin, Liu and Song Dynasties and was known as an "idyllic poet". Most of his poems often use the means of sustenance and symbolism, and the natural scenery he sings often contains special meanings, such as "bird", "pine", "lonely cloud" and "autumn chrysanthemum", which makes them no longer enter poetry as simple images, but become images containing the poet's mood and mentality, thus combining them into a special poetic image system. Among them, the image of "bird" is different from other images. It is the embodiment of the poet's self-image and the outstanding embodiment of the subject's moral sentiment and personality spirit. The discussion of the image of "flying birds" provides us with a lot of factual basis for studying Tao Yuanming's historical background, inner activities and spiritual world. At the same time, the discussion of the "flying bird" image helps us to better understand Tao Yuanming's contradictory and complicated ideological character, understand Tao's poems and his seclusion mentality, and also provides a clue for comprehensively exploring the mentality of Wei and Jin scholars.
The contradiction between ideal and reality runs through Tao Yuanming's life, which is not only manifested in the repetition of official career and retirement, but also in his inner depression and resentment after retirement. Singing birds runs through the whole process of Tao Yuanming's poetry creation. There are 14 "birds" in the existing pottery collection, most of which are metaphorical or symbolic. The image of "bird" in the works sets off, renders and sets off the poet's subjective feelings, fully displays the poet's inner activities and spiritual world, and clearly and completely outlines the poet's emotional trajectory and spiritual course. Tao Yuanming's poetry creation is closely related to current events for such a recluse poet who "never forgets the world" 1. With the growth of age and the change of social environment, Tao Yuanming's thoughts are constantly changing because of his experience of being an official and retiring several times, and the image of "flying birds" in poems in different periods has also undergone subtle changes. And this change is also the image representation of the poet's complex emotions. Let's try to analyze the "bird" image in Tao Yuanming's poems from different periods of his life.
First, tired birds and happy birds-wandering at both ends of the heart
Tao Yuanming experienced ups and downs and lived in seclusion several times in his life. During his thirteen years as an official (29-4 1 year old), he has been troubled by his own way out, that is, the problem of being an official and hiding. The multiple reasons of being an official and hiding revealed his psychological contradictions and left a distinct impression in his poems. He profoundly expressed his thoughts and feelings and thoughts on the road of life in the image of a bird.
Although Tao Yuanming was very interested in Laozi and Zhuangzi's theory in his early years, Confucianism, which was the most influential, was practical. He said: "Young people are rare, and they swim well in the Six Classics." I am eager to escape from all over the world. I am in Philip Burkart. It can be seen that his ambition is great, and he hopes that he can "help the poor" and manage the society like Yao and Shun in the future. However, he was born at the wrong time, and Tao Yuanming lived in an extremely corrupt era. During this period, ethnic contradictions, class contradictions and contradictions within the ruling class were very sharp. Rulers let the political situation of decentralized separatism go unchecked, without seeking progress, and courtiers all attempted to usurp power and seize power for personal interests; In the employment system, the door-door system prevails, the gentry class holds political power and suppresses talents, the ethos of the times is unhealthy, hypocrisy and glitz prevail, they flatter their superiors, they are arrogant, they run amok and shameless; Tao Yuanming, an upright man, pursues truth and advocates freedom. Besides, he is "just clumsy in sex and has too much desire for things". This social and political corruption prevented Tao Yuanming from displaying his political ambitions, and his bumpy political career of 13 years was full of contradictions and anguish. When the ambition of "ruling the country and leveling the world" prevailed in his thoughts, he went into politics several times, but he felt tired: on the one hand, he had to rush about for his political ideal, on the other hand, he felt "ashamed of ambition" for the right and wrong of officialdom. Tao Yuanming lives in an era of internal troubles and foreign invasion. In this precarious society, literati lack a kind of spiritual support and life guarantee, let alone fail to realize their political ideals! During his long career in officialdom, he suffered from being displaced from place to place, felt that politics was no good, realized the fantasy of benevolent government, and came up with the idea of getting rid of the existing lifestyle and looking for a new life. Therefore, Tao Yuanming hopes to return to his hometown and live a quiet life away from the hubbub, which is reflected in a poem he wrote on the way to join the army when he became a general of the town army at the age of 40 and Liu Yu was a secretariat of Xuzhou: "Looking at the clouds is ashamed to swim in the water." Tao Yuanming used birds as a metaphor. Birds should live freely in the forest and fly high in the sky. Then they should return to their original nature, return to the embrace of nature, live a life of "stopping to travel" and seek comfort and sustenance in nature. The "flying bird" written by Tao Yuanming in "Gui Xi Ci" is a tired bird. When he is tired of flying, he will know to return. "Tired bird"-"Tired bird" is an emotional and personalized image, which is the embodiment of the poet's self-image. He replaced people with birds and said that he had just left the government and would retire immediately. He expressed his firm determination to retire no matter how bad the environment was, but it was also accompanied by loneliness, depression, exploration and helplessness.
When Tao Yuanming pursued "simple living" and "individual freedom" prevailed, he retired several times. When he retired, the pastoral joy satisfied his character and interest of "harmony between man and nature", so the "birds" in his works became "happy birds". In the fifth year of Jin 'an Longan (40 1), Tao Yuanming resigned from the post of Huan Xuan shogunate and returned to his hometown. At this time, he enthusiastically sang his farming life with the image of a happy bird: "I am driving in the morning light and I am painting." Birds celebrate the new festival, and the wind sends Yushan. 8 Birds, Joy and Happy Birds. In the author's pen, the bird is me, the bird is my joy, and I am integrated with the world, completely forgetting myself, even without me. Here, I wander in things, and God moves with the scenery. The author diluted the free and easy brushwork with unpretentious words and outlined a distant and peaceful realm. Express your relaxed and happy mood after returning to the forest as a tired bird through the image of a happy bird.
In this way, Tao Yuanming, who wants to "help the world together" but doesn't want to get involved in the turbid world, wants to be lofty and self-sufficient but can't give up his feelings of helping the world, tossing and turning in the whirlpool of contradiction and pain, wandering in the contrast between official and seclusion, ugliness and reality, and beauty in rural life, and falling into a wandering situation at both ends of a heart. In "the geese have no sorrow, and the metabolism returns to the north." In 9, he described himself as a "wild goose" who was sad because he couldn't find a suitable place to live, vividly expressing his dilemma of not being "two-headed", which is precisely the contradiction in his thoughts. He is dissatisfied with the reality, unable to change, and sees no hope of change. So he adopted the escape way of "being alone", and the result was inevitably loneliness, being content with the status quo, leading an honest and clean life, and even retreating to other places.
2. Catch birds and return to the forest-the pursuit period of rural life
Tao Yuanming resigned from Peng in November of the first year (405) at the age of 29. Thirteen years of bumpy official career, he not only experienced the pain of official career, but also saw through the corruption of officialdom. Therefore, after a long-term ideological contradiction and struggle between official career and retirement, he finally chose the road of retirement and never became an official again.
Tao Yuanming's leading thought in the early days of rural life was Confucianism. "State-owned Tao is an official, and no Tao is a pity" and "poor is immune to it, and reaching is helpful to the world" are the concentrated manifestations of Confucianism. As Mr. Wang Tingzhen said: "Tao Yuanming's life is a life of struggle to realize the' helping the poor' volunteer." 10 Tao Yuanming only changed the way to realize his volunteer from his official career to returning to the field, but did not change the volunteer itself. He expressed his ideal and pursuit in another way, that is, to compose poems. Therefore, Tao Yuanming's seclusion is only in the era of "the country has no way", and in society, he is "independent" and conforms to nature.
Returning to the field temporarily satisfied Tao Yuanming's personality requirement of "nature and nature". At the beginning of Tao Yuanming's resignation at the age of 4/kloc-0, Peng's "Return and Ci" was tantamount to his announcement of lifelong retirement. This poem describes the happy mood when returning home and the fun of seclusion, which integrates narration, scenery description and lyricism. According to the poem, after retiring, Tao Yuanming lived a light life of "planting a branch, cultivating a branch" and "wandering in a clean stream and writing poems", and took it as a pleasure and took it as the foundation. In his early years, Tao Yuanming entered the society with the ideal of 1 1, and his career was bumpy, but the unpredictable political situation, the intrigue of corrupt officialdom and the dirty chaos of secular society finally forced him to leave the ruling group and finally returned to that era with resentment.
One of them, Returning to the Garden, was written in the spring of the following year after the poet retired from Pengze. At that time, the poet was forty-two years old. At this time, he made up his mind to live in seclusion and settled down in his new life. Compared with the past, poets cherish everything in sight more and more:
Few people do as the Romans do. Their nature is to love nature. I sneaked into the official career network and have been away from the game for more than ten years. Birds in cages are often attached to the forests of the past, and fish in ponds yearn for the abyss of the past. I want to open up wasteland in Minamino and keep my humility to the fields. The house is surrounded by about ten acres of land, thatched cottages. Willow trees cover the eaves, and peach trees cover Li Lieman in front of the hospital. The neighboring village of the neighboring village is faintly visible, and there is smoke in the village. Several dogs barked in the alley, and the mulberry tree was barked by a rooster. There is no dust and sundries in the yard, and the quiet room is comfortable and leisurely. Trapped in a cage without freedom for a long time, I finally returned to the forest today.
I'm sorry to recall the past few words. He regards officialdom as a "dust net" and says that he strayed into it, just like holding a bird and a pond fish, but he can't get rid of it. The following "Southern Reclamation" turns to the life after seclusion, as if the poet took us to visit his pastoral area. He pointed to the host country and introduced us one by one: fields, straw houses, elm willows, peaches and plums, distant villages, nearby cooking smoke, dogs barking and chickens crowing. These ordinary scenery, once touched by the poet, add infinite interest. "A warm and distant village, the smoke of a market in Iraq", one far away and one near, like a sketch, vividly shows the beauty and tranquility of the countryside. The smoke in the kitchen is so leisurely that it completely conforms to the poet's mood. The phrase "a dog barks", which is moved by emotion and written quietly, has a good artistic effect. The last four sentences sum up the whole poem, and the feelings of joy and relief are beyond words. Poets have always suffered for the officials, and now their caged birds have finally returned to the old forest, naturally expressing the poet's joy in the integration of rural life and rural scenery through birds, and their joy is self-evident. In the poem "Many birds are happy to have a home, I love my family" 12, the poet expressed his simple view of rural life. Everyone has his own interests, and he only wants to browse a group of books. The poem that can best express Tao Yuanming's carefree mood during this period is "Returning to Birds";
Wings return to birds and go to the forest in the morning; Eight tables are far away, and clouds are near. The wind is not harmonious and the heart turns over; Gu Zhuo sang, and the scenery obscured Qingyin.
Wing wing returns to the bird, carrying the item and flying. Although I don't want to swim, I see Lin Qingyi. How stubborn is the cloud, and it will return. Sincere and leisurely in the distance, endless sex.
The wings return to the birds and the forest is tamed; Thinking about heaven, rejoicing against the old habitat. Although there is no previous lover, but the voice is very harmonious. In the evening, the air is clear and carefree.
Wings return to birds, feathers are cold, and you can't swim through the forest. The morning breeze is refreshing, and the sound is good. It's rolled up!
Tao Yuanming finally returned to the field, feeling relieved. The bird in Yuan Ming's works is such an image after finding the real poetic existence. This poem, dedicated to the singing birds, expresses his happy mood of seclusion in the field and his rich and happy life in the field. Every move of the returning bird is consistent with the poet's own experience: the returning bird used to fly with its wings, which was "eight meters away, but close to the clouds". However, as the environment changes to a direction that is not conducive to the survival of birds, returning birds can only "turn over and seek their hearts" and "think about heaven and love their old habitat". The bird returning from the forest is the embodiment of the poet himself. At first, he went out to be an official to realize his great ambition, but in the end, he had to retreat to the countryside because "the world is against me." "Although there were no lovers yesterday, all the voices were harmonious. It's sunny and leisurely in the evening. "It is consistent with" Stay too long, stay too late, and play too much "13, which expresses his thinking on the road of life, that is, he resists the secular in his heart, but does not escape from life, abides by his love for life, makes positive progress, is not vulgar and does not play the world. The birds in the poem are full of vitality, jumping, pure and carefree. It doesn't have to worry about being trapped, and it won't wander at dusk. It is infinitely attached to the forest that raised it, which is the starting point of its life and the final destination. In fact, "returning to the bird with wings" is a portrayal of Tao Yuanming's mature thought. He finally found a foothold-the countryside-where his life and spirit depend. Birds are to the mountains what Tao Yuanming is to the countryside and nature. The mountain forest is the nest where birds live, and the country is the place where life and spirit stop.
Of course, Tao Yuanming's return is not a hasty, angry and willful choice, but a rational choice and judgment. This shows the power of personality cultivation. Mr. Ye Jiaying had a poetic analysis of Tao Yuanming's search process: "From Tao Yuanming's poems, we can deeply understand how he finally found the way he wanted to go and his resting place in spirit and life in this dark and pluralistic world, holding the lamp in his hand and filling it with the ointment of wisdom." 14 The image of returning birds has become a symbol of the poet's transcendence of life, pursuit of self-worth and personality ideal, which is full of all the poet's emotions. The description of the life form of the returning bird is actually his reflection on the life form of himself, and affirming that "returning to the bird" is also a choice to affirm himself.
Third, solitary birds live in the forest-the reflection period of life destination
After retiring, Tao Yuanming gradually approached the people through long-term labor, and his works reflected the thoughts and wishes of farmers in some aspects. On the other hand, he is always uncooperative with the rulers. At the end of the Jin dynasty, the court levied him as a helper, so it was not. In the third year of Yuanjia (426), Tan Daoji, the secretariat of Jiangzhou, personally visited his home. At this time, Tao Yuanming had been hungry for several days, and it was difficult to get up. Tan said, "Sages are alive, but if there is no way, they will be hidden. If there is a way, they will arrive. Today, the child was born in a civilized world. Why suffer from it? " Tao said, "When diving, how dare you look at the sages? I am not as good as me. " Tan gave the meat to Liang, but Tao stole it. From this incident, we can see his backbone, and at the same time, we can see that his life in the later stage of returning to the stadium is quite hard. Although he can get rid of his superficial reputation and be "neither poor nor rich", 16 can't be said to be one that bothers Tao Yuanming. All this made Tao Yuanming re-recognize his life path. He thought about life in an all-round way, summed up himself, and decided to follow the legacy of Confucius, who was a former teacher, and stick to it to the end. Moreover, in fact, the grandeur of the teenager reminded him that the poverty of his family troubled him, the arrival of illness made him depressed, and the political changes made him lament. Unable to realize his ideals and ambitions, he was trapped in troubled times, lost his bosom friend, experienced and spoke of death, which made him tend to be depressed and lonely, and his thoughts were relatively negative. As time goes by, the poet becomes more and more aware of what awaits him. The more sober he is, the stronger the feeling of depression and loneliness. In the 13th year of Jin 'an Yi Xi (4 17), Tao Yuanming wrote Twenty Drinks at the age of 53, and four of them concentrated on expressing this emotion:
Birds without birds fly alone at dusk. Wandering endlessly, every night my voice becomes sad. Li went to Qingyuan, where to go. Because value is lonely, loose and distant. There is no glorious wood in the strong wind, and this shade is absolutely unique. I have my house, which has a history of 1000 years.
On the surface, this poem sings about the "bird" who lost the group and eventually died alone. In fact, it is used to describe the poet himself who went through ups and downs and finally lived in seclusion in the countryside. The solo flight in Lost Birds symbolizes the poet's loneliness. "Li Xiangsi's Qingyuan, where did he come from" and "Life is rootless, drifting like dust on a stranger" 17 complement each other, implying that the poet seeks his true destination and asks about the psychological contradiction between his life value and his personality ideal; "Wandering endlessly, turning to worry every night" is a metaphor for depression attacking the poet and making him endure long and endless pain. The image of "bird" here is no longer a happy bird singing in the forest, but a lonely bird with all the political depression and ideals of the poet. Tao Yuanming doesn't want to live in seclusion. His ambition has been buried in his heart, and he cares about social reality. His poems often reveal his dissatisfaction with the dark society, as well as his anxiety and indignation at the failure to display his ambitions. Drinking and picking chrysanthemums, a seemingly chic life, is actually just a kind of self-comfort, and his heart is very painful. Returning birds changed from "singing with each other" 18 to "loneliness and inseparability", and their modality and encounters reached the tacit understanding of "shape" and "heart" with various lonely experiences in the poet's heart, which artistically reproduced Tao Yuanming's desolate mentality and "I can't catch up".
Tao Yuanming has been worried that his life value can't be realized, and his seclusion life can't be understood by the world, leaving him in a state of loneliness, depression, anxiety and sadness, and trying to extricate himself from it and comfort himself. The lonely bird image is a vivid expression of the poet's uneasy soul in this state. This kind of lonely image can be found in all previous dynasties' strangers. For example, Qu Yuan, who once described himself as a "bird", said that "the world is cloudy and I am alone, and everyone is drunk and I wake up alone". Cao Zhi, who has lofty aspirations and encountered setbacks, pinned his feelings on "flying alone in the south, mourning is greater than dying in his heart". The solitary bird in Tao Yuanming's works is isomorphic to the solitary bird in the previous generation's literati works, forming an image of a scholar whose talents and confidants have never met, which not only vividly expresses the poet's own aspirations and demands, but also conveys the needs and desires of the poet's time and inner pain and suffering.
Tao Yuanming lives in troubled times, and his social environment determines his aesthetic ideal and creative style. As Racine, a French tragic writer in the17th century, said, "Society is a wild animal, it can kick and jump, unless you can talk to it in its language ... One can't help but go with the flow. Philosophers and sages are also people who live in wild animals ... If they don't want to be smashed into dust, they can only shut up and retreat to their own small world, stand by and watch those who are splashed by rain and mud, and be glad that they can save themselves. " Tao Yuanming is also a saint who has to keep his mouth shut, and his "glare" makes him tend to infinite contradiction and pain, which is reflected in his thirteen poems Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas. The poet praised Jing Wei and Xing Tian's indomitable will and fighting spirit of death, but also expressed his generous and uneven mood, which he could not show with his bare hands. Therefore, his political ideal that can't be realized in real life can only be expressed through poetry and prose, so as to achieve the purpose of venting.
To sum up, the "bird" image in Tao Yuanming's works, whether imagined or real, is not an objective landscape material and a scene for people to watch, but a medium full of subjective feelings and various emotional experiences of the main life. It is a dynamic image, implicitly expressing his unique feelings and understanding of life and society, which is also a key for us researchers to open the poet's mind.