Brief introduction of Tao Yuanming's characters
Tao Yuanming (352 or 365-427), also known as "Jingjie", was born in Xunyang Chaisang (now Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province). A great poet and poet at the end of Eastern Jin Dynasty and the beginning of Southern Song Dynasty. He served as Jiangzhou Wine Sacrifice, Jianwei Army, Zhenjun, and Pengze County Order, and the last official position was Pengze County Order. He left his post for more than 80 days and retired to the countryside. He is the first pastoral poet in China, and is known as the "School of Ancient and Modern Hermit Poetry", with a collection of Tao Yuanming.
Early life
Yuan Ming's great-grandfather was still Tao Kan (it is still controversial at present, but their genetic relationship is certain). Grandfather Meng Jia was a celebrity in Jin Dynasty and married Tao Kan's tenth daughter. Grandfather is a satrap (grandfather has two names, either Dai or Mao), and his father is a man who "travels in the clouds and enjoys himself", so the specific deeds cannot be verified. There is also an ordinary sister, Obuchi Ming is three years old, and later married to the Cheng family, so Tao called her Cheng's sister. As far as his father still has a concubine, Yuan Ming's original family background is not too bad. At the age of eight, Yuan Ming's father died and his family fortune gradually declined. Mother died at the age of twelve, and Yuan Ming later wrote in an article recalling this past: "Kindness is early, fashion is naive. I'm twenty-six years old, and I'm only nine years old. At the age of twenty, my family was particularly poor, as evidenced by a poem: "When I was weak, my family was poor" ("Meeting Work").
Yuan Ming "studied Confucian classics since childhood, loved leisure, read good deeds, cherished solitary thoughts, loved Qiushan, had lofty aspirations and different customs". Murong Xu said: "The general angle hears the Tao", and drinking sixteen parts: "Young people are poor, but they can swim well in the Six Classics". He was educated by Confucianism in his early years and had the ambition of "traveling around the world and thinking far away" (miscellaneous poems). In that era when Laozi and Zhuangzi prevailed, he was also influenced by Taoist thought. He likes nature very early: "Less is not suitable for vulgar rhyme, and nature loves autumn mountains" (the first part of Return to the Garden). He also loves piano books: "Learn piano books less, I love leisure, and when I open the books, I forget to eat happily. In the shade, the birds changed their voices and they were happy again. As the saying goes, in mid-May and June, I was lying under the north window, and when the cool breeze came, I called myself Master Xidi. If you know what it means, you can keep your words "("Yan Zi et al. "). In him, there is both Taoist cultivation and Confucian cultivation.
official career
At the age of twenty, Yuan Ming started his official career to make a living. "Drinking" Part 10: "I swam far to the corner of the East China Sea. It's a long way to go, Xiu Yuan, and wind and rain hinder the road. Who made this trip? As if driven by hunger. Just have a little when you are full. Afraid that this is not a famous plan, I will go back to a hidden place "is to recall his official career." "At this stage, the details of the junior officials he was forced to serve by life are not yet available. After a short life at home, he became a state wine waiter at the age of 29 (the specific affairs of this official position have yet to be verified), and soon he was unbearable to be an official and resigned and returned to China. Soon, the country asked him to be the master book, but he resigned and still lived at home. In the second year of Longan (AD 398), Yuanming joined Huan Xuan. At the beginning of the fourth year of Longan (AD 400), he was sent to the capital and returned from the capital in May. Yu Guilin was blocked by the strong wind, and there was a poem "Gengzi was still blocked from the capital in May", which expressed his desire to return home and his nostalgia for the former residence in the garden. A year later, I went back to Xunyang to mourn my mother. After the expiration of three years, Yuan Ming became an official again with the concept of "forty ignorance and no fear" and became a general of the town army, Liu Yu. At this point, his mood is contradictory. He wants to make a grand plan for being an official, but he still misses the countryside after being an official. "He hates seeing different places in Sichuan, and his heart is full of mountains and rivers" ("The First Town Army Joins the Army" Qu Azuo). In March of the first year of Yixi (A.D. 405), Yuan and Ming joined Liu Shenjun, the general of Jianwei, and moved to the west to build the capital. There is a poem called "When I was four years old, I crossed the capital of western Guizhou", which said, "I look at the mountains and rivers every morning, and everything remains the same", "I care about what I have, but I don't care what I have" and "I dream about gardening every day, and I haven't seen you for a long time", which is the turmoil between officials.
live/dwell in seclusion
In August of the first year of Yixi (AD 405), Yuan Ming was appointed as an official for the last time and said goodbye to Peng. In November, Cheng Shimei died in Wuchang. Yuan Ming wrote "Gui Xi Ci", unsealed and resigned, and officially began to live in seclusion until the end of his life. At this time, the understanding is profound, the political attitude enters a clear period, and the thought also enters a mature period. Different from his previous life of farming, he is conscious now: he does this and understands why he does it. His rural life used to look like a small and medium-sized landlord, but now he has more labor and is closer to the life of ordinary farmers. During this period, he wrote many poems reflecting rural life, such as five "Returning to the Garden" and twelve "Miscellaneous Poems". In the fourth year of Yixi (AD 408), in mid-June, Yuanming's house caught fire, and the house was completely destroyed and forced to move. In the 11th year of Yixi (AD 4 15), the imperial court recruited him as Zuolang, but Yuan Ming said that he was ill and did not apply. In the 14th year of Yixi (AD 4 18), Wang Hong was the secretariat of Jiangzhou, and made friends with Yuan Ming about one year or two later. There are anecdotes between them, and wine is given away for nothing. In the first year of Yuanjia (AD 424), Yan Yanzhi made friends with Yuanming for the first time, and there was an anecdote about Gong Yan paying for wine. In the fourth year of Yuanjia (AD 427), Tan Daoji heard Yuanming's name, went to see him, gave him Liang rou, and advised him to be an official, but he refused and did not accept the Liang rou he gave him. In the same year, Yuan Ming died in Xunyang. After his death, his friends privately called it "Beijing Festival" and later called it "Festival".
Poetry and prose works:
Tao Yuanming's handed down works * * * include 125 poems and 12 articles, which were later compiled as "Collection of Tao Yuanming".
Volume one poem four words:
Stop the cloud (parallel order), make a fortune (parallel order), (parallel order), give Changsha Gong (parallel order), reward Ding Chai Sang, answer Pang Jun (parallel order), persuade farmers, make children and return birds.
Five words in the second volume of poetry:
Together (in sequence), nine days' leisure (in sequence), five poems about returning to the garden, a visit to Xie Chuanhe, the ancestor Xie Jingyi Saburo begging for food, a visit to the Baixia Tomb of Zhou Family by all the people, a complaint poem to master Pang Dengzhizhong, and a reply to Pang Shenjun (in sequence).
Volume three, poem five:
Qu Azuo was the first time that Zhen led the army to join the army. In mid-May, Gengzi returned to Chaolin, Xin Chou returned to Jiangling in July after his vacation, Guimao returned to his hometown in early spring to remember the past, Guimao returned to his hometown in December to respect his younger brother, Yi Si died in March, and Wushen returned to his former residence in June to meet the fire.
Volume four poems and five words:
Nine ancient poems, twelve miscellaneous poems, seven poems for helping the poor, two poems for sparse, three good poems, thirteen poems by Jing Ke, thirteen poems by reading Shan Hai Jing and three elegies.
Volume 5 "Fu Ci":
Fu is an unfamiliar literati (parallel prose preface), Fu is leisure, and Ci is the way home.
The sixth volume praise:
Peach Blossom Garden (a poem), Biography of Meng Yi, Biography of General Jin's Journey to the West, Biography of Mr. Wu Liu, Ode to a Painting Fan and Reading Nine Chapters of History (a preface).
Volume seven hydrophobic eulogy:
Zi Deng Shu, Sacrifice to Sister, Sacrifice to Brother, and Self-sacrifice.
Type of work:
Drinking poems
Tao Yuanming is the first poet in the history of China literature who wrote a large number of drinking poems. His "intoxicating" voice or criticism of right and wrong has discredited the same upper class; Or reflect the sinister occupation; Or express the joy of the poet after he quit the officialdom; Or express the poet's grievances in difficulties.
Poetry of the soul
Tao Yuanming's homesickness poems are represented by Miscellaneous Poems 12 and Reading Shan Hai Jing 13. More than twelve miscellaneous poems show their political depression after retirement and express their noble personality of not following the crowd. It can be seen that the poet's heart is infinitely deep and broad. Thirteen poems in Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas express the same content by reciting the strange things in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. For example, in the tenth poem, by praising Jing Wei and Xing Tian for their "fierce ambition", they express and show that their ambition to help the world will never die.
idyll
Tao Yuanming has the largest number of pastoral poems and the highest achievements. This kind of poetry fully shows the poet's noble integrity in keeping his ambition; It fully shows the poet's love for simple pastoral life, his understanding of labor and his friendly feelings for working people. It fully shows the poet's pursuit and yearning for the ideal world. As a scholar-bureaucrat, such thoughts, feelings and contents are unprecedented in the history of literature, especially in a society with strict gate system and concept. Some of Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems also reflect his predicament in his later years, which can help readers indirectly understand the miserable life of the peasant class at that time. Tao Yuanming is the pioneer of pastoral poetry. His pastoral poetry, with its simple and natural language and lofty artistic conception, opened up a new world for China poetry and directly influenced the pastoral poetry school in Tang Dynasty. In his pastoral poems, his boredom with dirty reality and his love for quiet pastoral life can be seen everywhere. 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.
Tao Yuanming's pastoral recluse poems had a great influence on Tang and Song poets. In Du Fu's poem, he said, "It is better to write a poem than to let go of your heart, which means I will wait for you all my life." Su Dongpo, a poet in the Song Dynasty, spoke highly of Tao Qian: "Poems of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties seem slow at first glance, but when they are familiar, they have strange sentences. ..... Only when the rate is high, the meaning is far-reaching, the meaning is wonderful, and the language is refined can it be like this. It's like a great craftsman carrying a catty, but he can't see the trace of an axe. " Su Dongpo's other works include Abstinence from Drinking with Tao, Drinking Alone with Tao 2, Persuading Agriculture with Tao 6, Living Idlely with Tao for Nine Days, Nine Antique Poems with Tao, Eleven Miscellaneous Poems with Tao, Four Clouds Stopping with Tao, Shadow with Tao and Shadow with Tao.
Prose fu
Tao Yuanming's position and influence in the history of literature depends on his prose and ci, no less than his poetry. Especially, these three articles, Biography of Mr. Wuliu, Peach Blossom Garden and Back to Xi Ci, are most famous for their temperament and thoughts.
The Biography of Mr. Wu Liu takes the form of an official biography, focusing on expressing life interest rather than describing life stories. It has the characteristics of self-narration and was initiated by Tao Yuanming. Returning to hometown is a declaration of returning to the countryside from official career. There are many colorful paragraphs in the article, and their ups and downs and comfortable kisses present the poet's ecstatic situation to the readers. Ouyang Xiu once commented: "Jin has no articles, and Tao Yuanming's Gui Ci is just one." What needs to be emphasized is that the ideal model provided by Tao Yuanming is unique: the people living in the Peach Blossom Garden are a group of ordinary people, a group of people who have fled the war, not immortals, but they have retained the true purity of nature more than the world. At the beginning of his retirement, Tao Yuanming thought about personal advance and retreat. When writing Peach Blossom Spring, he was not limited to individuals, but thought about the way out of the whole society and the happiness of the broad masses of people. Being able to get this far is related to years of hard work and poor life. Although the Peach Blossom Garden is just a fantasy, it is very valuable to put forward this fantasy.
Literary thoughts:
Tao Yuanming was a great thinker in the Middle Ages. His literary thought is an important part of the literary thought in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. His understanding of truth not only pays attention to the truth of history and life, but also pays attention to the truth of thoughts, feelings and ambitions, which is a perfect artistic truth. At the same time, his understanding of nature also shows the uniqueness of his literary thought. He doesn't talk about enlightenment, he doesn't carve things, he pays attention to the free expression of emotions and the naturalness of poetry, which is a very high realm. However, both advocating artistic truth and advocating literary essence are for the free expression of life. This is the soul of Tao Yuanming's literary thought.
Tao Yuanming has a very clear understanding of the hypocrisy and darkness of social personnel, so his seclusion is not a passive escape from reality, but has a profound positive significance in criticizing social reality. When he was caught in the predicament of hunger and cold in his long seclusion, although he hesitated and wavered, he did not give in to the reality in the end, preferring poverty and sticking to chastity all his life. It is said that the county magistrate sent Du You to see him, and the county official told him to get dressed to see him. He sighed and said, "How can I bow down to the children in the village?" From then on, it is better to talk about not bending over for five buckets of rice. Tao Yuanming likes drinking, and "sending wine as a trace" expresses his desire not to collude with the decadent ruling group, and shows the poet's calm and broad-minded mind and aloof and noble character, which is also the reason why his works are plain but poetic.
There are more than one hundred and forty articles in * * *, and the allusions of Liezi and Zhuangzi are quoted for more than seventy times, so we cannot but deeply accept the thoughts of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. Tao Yuanming advocates the natural aesthetics of Laozi and Zhuangzi, while living and working in the countryside. Naturally, rural life became his aesthetic objectification, which made China's pastoral poems brilliant. Tao Yuanming's poetic beauty thought of taking nature as beauty and truth as beauty shines on poetry, illuminates the personality of the characters, and makes readers strongly feel the poet's arrogant and unyielding personality charm of pursuing freedom. Reflected in the content, it is to introduce rural life into the world of poetry and open up a new world for the development of China's poetry; Infiltrating into art is to produce a true and simple artistic realm and an aesthetic style that dilutes nature. This is the great poet Tao Yuanming. For thousands of years, his personality, his poems, his pastoral poems, together with his leisure, have become the objects of worship and research by later poets and readers, which is enough to show that his aesthetic thoughts have infinite vitality.
Artistic features:
language
The language of Tao Yuanming's works is plain, but it is to express deep feelings and rich thoughts in simple and plain language; The meaning is easy to read, and the connotation needs to be carefully tasted, but it is also sincere. Liang Shiqiu said, "Brilliance is attributed to dullness, but that dullness is not mediocrity, that dullness is not dullness, and that dullness is an artistic charm that does not reveal traces."
Such as farmers' spoken language, but the artistic image created is vivid and distinct. Su: "Yuan Ming's poems are slow at first glance and interesting to read. For example, in a remote village, there is smoke in the yiyi market. Several dogs barked in the alley, and the mulberry tree was barked by a rooster. He also said,' under the east fence of picking chrysanthemums, you can see Nanshan leisurely.' If the rate is high, it will have a beautiful meaning and can be achieved. For example, a great craftsman carries a kilo without an axe. If you don't know, you will die of exhaustion. "It embodies a clever idea of" seemingly ordinary and most extraordinary, easy and difficult to achieve "(in Wang Anshi's words).
skill
He is good at writing scenery, dyeing the scenery with freehand brushwork, and his artistic conception is muddy, lofty and full of rational interest. The language is accurate and true, simple and true, the style is sparse and the charm is deep. However, Tao's poems are elegant, leisurely and naturally diluted, and are also generous and unrestrained by King Kong, such as Ode to Jing Ke and Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Shi Tao is also good at combining xing with the beauty of nature. The scenery in his works is both symbolic and real in life. For example, Cloudy Moon and Ye Zhonghua, written by antique people in the seventh song Cloudless Sunset, are not only spring scenery on a moonlit night, but also the most beautiful and prosperous short time in life. The scenes in Tao Yuanming's works are often personified, such as pine trees, fragrant chrysanthemums, returning birds and lonely clouds, which are common scenes in daily life and symbols of the poet's noble character.
style
Tao Yuanming is good at poetry, and his poems mostly describe natural scenery and rural life, which is also the main theme of Tao Yuanming's poems. Among them, his excellent works express his boredom with officialdom and secular society, show his interest in leading an honest and clean life and refusing to bow down to please others, but also advocate negative thoughts such as "impermanence of life" and "happy fate". Its artistic features are simple and bright, simple and natural in language, extremely refined and unique in style. Tao Yuanming is the first pastoral poet in China, and his poems focus on expressing his feelings. Lyricism, scenery description and discussion are closely combined, and the scene blends, which embodies the author's personality, his lofty self-worship and his indifference to the secular.