The language of this poem is plain and simple, but it does not lose its charm. It is natural and thought-provoking to write a refreshing realm in everyday language without exaggeration. The phrase "a natural language is always new, and it is extravagant to see the truth" fully expresses the language characteristics of this poem.
Take scenery as the source of poetry, emotion as the edge of poetry, and reason as the end of poetry. The "mind" and "land" in the first four sentences are the relationship between subjective spirit and objective environment. As long as you are "ambitious", you will not be disturbed by secular noise anywhere. You, while picking chrysanthemums, enjoy the mountains, and people and scenery are integrated. The mountain air in the evening and the returning birds make up a beautiful scenery. It contains the true meaning of life, which cannot be expressed in words. The unity of things and me means infinity.
The whole poem is fresh and natural, without any affectation, and writes the poet's feelings of contentment and contentment. If it weren't for his extraordinary personality and clear understanding of life, how could he have such a vast poem? People who have desires have desires. People should do whatever it takes to be different; Man's desire is infinite, but his desire is limited. At what age you live, you have what kind of desires. Without desire, there is no hope. But people want to create it because of life. Different people have different desires, and different desires make different people. Desire must be right, and desire must have fruit. How about life, it is important to have desire. Whether it is a blessing or a curse, we should grasp it separately. There are too many arrogant desires. It's hard to fill the valley, don't fall in!
As far as the origin of poetry is concerned, Tao Yuanming has long been a Ruan Ji. This is mainly manifested in his poems expressing deep feelings, expressing his exploration of life, using philosophical observation and using the form of group poems. On the other hand, Tao poetry is obviously influenced by metaphysical poetry. This is not only reflected in many metaphysical words in his poems, in his plain language style, but also in his understanding of the relationship between man and nature. In Ruan Ji's poems, the eternity of nature contrasts with the brevity of life, and people feel strong oppression in front of nature; However, in the metaphysical poems of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was transformed into people's understanding and pursuit of nature. When Tao Yuanming arrived, he put forward the concept of returning to nature more clearly, and the consciousness of harmony between man and nature became the decisive factor of the unique artistic conception of Tao poetry. Of course, Tao poetry attaches importance to expressing philosophy through artistic images rather than abstract language, which is essentially different from the boring metaphysical poetry.
Tao Yuanming's great contribution in the history of poetry development lies in that he has created a new aesthetic field and a new artistic realm. Although ordinary metaphysical poets pay attention to understanding philosophy from examining nature, which has produced the bud of landscape poetry, no one has turned their eyes to ordinary villages. It is only in Tao Yuanming's works that rural life and rural scenery are regarded as important aesthetic objects for the first time, thus opening up a unique world for future generations. He regards agricultural labor as a natural way of life and praises the beautiful interest contained in working life, which is also a profound discovery. Predecessors have long commented on the artistic features of Tao's poems, calling them simple, natural and sincere. But this is not a folk song, nor is it a style influenced by folk songs, but a conscious aesthetic pursuit of the poet. Fundamentally speaking, this is also determined by Tao Yuanming's "natural" philosophy. In his view, man-made complex etiquette destroys the naturalness of society, and pretentious behavior destroys the naturalness of human nature. Then, excessive pursuit of external poetic form will inevitably destroy the naturalness of feelings. Therefore, he seldom uses language with bright colors, exaggerated intonation, abstruse vocabulary and uncommon allusions. Contradictions are also commonly used in his poems, but most of them are primitive and not so refined that they are not obvious. His poems are full of emotion, but they are rarely really strong and appear surging, but combined with calm philosophical thinking, they present a clear and distant artistic conception. This aesthetic realm is unprecedented, and there is no one after it. Furthermore, the simplicity of Shi Tao's words is not random, not processed, but highly refined, washing away all miscellaneous and sticky components, and then showing a clear simplicity. There is no doubt that he has a keen sense of the beauty of nature, so he can recreate it into a poetic image with accurate and simple language. For example, "a warm and distant village, smoke on a field in Iraq" describes the tranquility of the countryside, "keeping one's ears open, keeping one's eyes clean" describes the lightness of snow, and "there is a south wind coming, and the wings are new seedlings" describes the traces of wind. On the one hand, the pursuit of beauty and rhetoric in western Jin poetry improved the expressive skills of poetic language, but sometimes it was too difficult to do so, ignoring the integrity of poetry, leading to cumbersome and fragmented problems. Tao's poems are based on profound thoughts, feelings and philosophies, and never show off external beauty. Therefore, most of them are concise and the layout is less. Zhong Rong's poem is called "There are almost no long words". The artistic conception of poetry is always relatively complete, infecting readers as a whole, rather than attracting people with a word or a fragment.
Tao Yuanming's personal personality is undoubtedly noble, and he is by no means indifferent to society. However, the dominant aspect of his literary creation is that he is eager to avoid contradictions, strive to transcend things and forget the pain of reality. Both the enterprising spirit of Jian 'an literature and the tragic consciousness of Zhengshi literature require the realization of people's freedom of will in real social relations. Tao Yuanming's "natural" philosophy can be said to be a profound philosophy unilaterally, but it is in this way that he avoids the fundamental problem of human freedom in society. It can be said that this is also a manifestation of the weakening of individual consciousness. Therefore, the more difficult it is for future generations of literati to resist social oppression, the easier it is to think of Tao Yuanming and use his outlook on life to resolve rather than break through social oppression. This not only satisfies the spiritual and moral self-comfort, but also avoids the dangers that are easy to encounter in conflicts. 1) Tao Yuanming (365 ~ 427) was a writer in the Jin and Song Dynasties. A potential, intelligent character. Xunyang Chaisang (now southwest of Jiujiang, Jiangxi) was born. Tao Yuanming was born in a declining official family. In the family, he admired his great-grandfather Tao Kan's initiative and enterprising spirit, and especially appreciated his grandfather Meng Jia's desalination of nature. Confucianism and Taoism are integrated into one. In the early stage (before 4 1 year-old), he was eager to make progress and made a wine sacrifice in Jiangzhou. Emperor Wu of song joined the army and Peng, and the protagonist was Confucian spirit. However, due to the contradiction between Confucianism and Taoism, officials are sometimes hidden and indecisive. In the later period (after 4 1 year-old), Tao Yuanming resigned and retired, and broke away from the officialdom completely because of the turbulent political situation, sinister official career, corrupt official politics and strict gate system.
In his fourth year of seclusion, his hometown was burned down and his life fell into extreme poverty, but he lived in poverty and happiness. In the last few years in Yixi, the court recruited him as an official. In the third year of Yuanjia, Tandaoji, the secretariat of Jiangzhou, advised him to go out of the mountain. He kept a festival and refused to be an official. Obviously, Taoism played a leading role in this period.
Tao Yuanming was the most outstanding poet in the Han, Wei, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Tao poems 125, mostly five-character poems. From the content, it can be divided into three categories: drinking poems, chanting poems and pastoral poems.
This article was written in the second year of Song Yongchu (42 1), when Tao Yuanming was 57 years old. He refused to cooperate with the upcoming regime of Emperor Wu of Song and was dissatisfied with the dark political reality. At the same time, he wrote this article because he is close to farmers and understands their desire to pursue an ideal society. This article is the preface of "Preface to Peach Blossom Garden Poetry", which can be written independently.
The author of this story was asked to make it up. He lived in the war-torn environment at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and lived in seclusion in the countryside for a long time. He had a deeper understanding of the reality of the countryside and a personal understanding of the people's wishes, so he conceived his ideal society-Xanadu. But the author clearly sees that such an ideal society could not be realized under the conditions at that time.
(2) This ideal society shows the author's yearning and longing for equality and happiness for everyone without exploitation and war.
The pursuit of a better future is a beautiful wish and sustenance, so it cannot be realized.
How to evaluate Tao Yuanming
As a hermit in the troubled times at the end of the Jin Dynasty, it is conceivable that Tao Yuanming often interacted with Buddhism in Lushan Mountain in his later years, but their thoughts are not necessarily the same. Anyone who has carefully studied Tao's poems and knows the poet's life will know that Tao Yuanming is an atheist with a quiet appearance and a warm heart to help the world. When I was a teenager, I was ambitious, accepted Confucianism and hoped to make contributions. However, after being an official for a period of time, the reality disappointed him. He didn't want to go along with the people in power, so he chose a road to retire and return to the fields.
At this time he was influenced by Zhuangzi's philosophy. Because he had never lived in the countryside before, he had personally participated in labor and had contact with the working people, so he inevitably got some new feelings and inspirations in his thoughts. Therefore, when the Jin Dynasty advocated the old style of writing, he was able to create a new form of landscape pastoral poetry with unique style, which made great contributions to the history of China's poetry development. He never forgot this world from his "ambition to escape from the four seas" in his youth to his "ambition to stay in the world" in his old age. His masterpiece "Peach Blossom Garden" handed down from ancient times is precisely his vision for a society where everyone is self-reliant and friendly, and there is no distractions and poverty in reality. Even analyzing his seclusion and drinking in the background at that time contains the significance of expressing some dissatisfaction and resistance to the dark rule at that time.
Of course, Tao Yuanming was, after all, a scholar-bureaucrat who lived in the feudal society more than a thousand years ago. There are many negative things in his thoughts and poems, such as living in poverty, eating, drinking and avoiding the world. However, due to his class preference, literary critics and poets of later generations pay more attention to appreciating and praising his characteristics in this respect, which is regarded as the essence of Tao's poetry.