It means that if you are not a sage, have a firm ambition and don't go along with the world, who can achieve this state? Being evil with the Tao is not in collusion with the secular.
Xiao Tong personally wrote a preface for Tao Yuanming. Xiao Tong collected Tao Yuanming's poems and compiled them into Tao Yuanming's Collection, and personally prefaced and highly praised Tao Yuanming's personality and works. This sentence is a true portrayal of Tao Yuanming's noble personality.
original text (excerpt)
There is doubt that there is wine in Tao Yuanming's poems. I don't think it's about wine, but it's also about sending wine as a trace. His articles are not crowded, the rhetoric is brilliant, the ups and downs are clear, and he is superior to others, and he is hearty and hearty, which is beyond Beijing. Cross the element wave and swim with it, and go straight up.
English current affairs can be referred to and imagined, while the discussion of arms is broad and true. How can you be faithful to your ambition, live in peace and live a hard life, not be ashamed of your hard work, not be ill with your lack of money, not be loyal to your ambition, and be corrupt with your way?
translation
all of Tao Yuanming's poems contain wine, but his original intention is not wine, but to pin his interest on wine. His articles stand out from the crowd, his words are wonderful, his ups and downs are heroic, and he is more than many articles, and he can't compare with him. Such as broad white waves flowing eastward, majestic and soaring into the sky.
Talking about current events is targeted and thought-provoking; On ambition, you are broad-minded and frank. Plus the ambition of chastity never gives up, content with morality, hard to keep chastity, not ashamed of working personally, not distressed by poverty. If you are not a sage, have a firm ambition and don't go along with the secular, who can achieve this state?
Extended information:
Appreciation of the original text (excerpt)
The key to why Tao Yuanming's poems have been loved by people of different classes and different ideas for thousands of years lies in "being broad and true when talking about his arms". "Truth" is his criterion for being a man, and it is also his criterion for writing poems. Xiao Tong express that highest aesthetic realm of his poem.
"Go with the tide, rise to the top" is a very accurate and lofty evaluation of the dating status and significance of Tao Yuanming's works. Wang Tinggan, a Ming Dynasty man, had a deep understanding of this: "Yuan Liang was far-minded, had no integrity, and vigorously encouraged the decadent style, surpassing Xuancheng. When he was in trouble, he was released and returned to the field. Poems and ambitions, not annoying rope cutting, but have a natural beauty. The wider it is, the deeper it is pressed.
Confucian scholars are the best, and they are unique in Ci poetry. Liang Zhaoming said,' Cross the plain waves and swim alongside them, and rise to the heights.' "("Collection and Postscript of Mr. Jingjie ") Hu Fengdan, a Qing dynasty, also had a similar evaluation:" There is Jingjie in husband's poems, and Changli in Jude's writings. Literature must be as prosperous as Changli, and then it can decline for eight generations; Poetry must also be like a quiet festival, and then it can be like the Six Dynasties. " (preface to the complete works of four schools in the Six Dynasties)
Wei and Jin dynasties were graceful and humanistic, but they talked clearly and analyzed, and the mysterious wind flourished; Buddhism broadcasting, people compete for Samana; The fog of idealism, nihilism and formalism, such as piling up allusions and galloping literary words, permeates society and hangs over the literary world. Tao Yuanming's poems, as Xiao Tong said, are like a torrent of clean water flowing across rivers, and if a bunch of clear water rises from the ground, it will shoot straight into the sky.
the realm of "picking chrysanthemums under the east fence, leisurely seeing Nanshan", the ideal of "collecting silkworms in spring, avoiding the king's tax when they are ripe in autumn", the state of mind of "asking your husband what he can do, being far away from home", the beauty of "being warm in a distant village, smoking in a yiyi market", the enthusiasm of "knocking at the door in the morning, and opening the sword upside down", and "cherishing the sparseness of fencing.
Xiao Tong lived in that era and was an heir to the throne. He was in the fog, but he knew the true face of Lushan Mountain. This passage is a comprehensive evaluation of Tao Yuanming, which is also very pertinent and has always been recognized by scholars.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Preface to Tao Yuanming's Collection