His poems are full of the spirit of Taoism and nature, filled with a fresh, natural and quiet charm, which changed the obscure style of metaphysical poems since Wei and Jin Dynasties. Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, Wei and Liu Zongyuan all adopted Xie Lingyun's method.
Tao Yuanming's poems
In Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems, his boredom with dirty reality and his love for quiet pastoral life can be seen everywhere. In Returning to the Garden, he described officialdom as a "dust net", compared being in it to "catching birds" and "pond fish", and compared retiring from the countryside to rushing out of the cage and returning to nature.
Because of his actual labor experience, his poems are full of the joy of laborers, showing the thoughts and feelings that only laborers can feel. For example, the third poem "Returning to the Garden" is a powerful proof that this is the progress of his pastoral poetry.
The poet was disappointed with the reality and was forced to return to poetry to build an ideal society. Peach Blossom Garden poetry is a reflection of his ideological tendency.
Tao Yuanming's poems about chivalry are both patriotic and passive, which shows the complexity of his poetic thoughts.
Tao Yuanming's poems are mostly based on rural scenery and ordinary life, which are directly expressed by simple language and line drawing techniques, making people feel natural, cordial and sincere, without any traces of artificial carving, guiding readers to appreciate the relaxed and diluted feelings and enter the artistic conception created by the poet.