Tao Yuanming's Pastoral Poems
Author: Tao Yuanming
Representative Works:
Drinking (Part 5)
Tao Yuanming< /p>
The house is in a human environment, without the noise of cars and horses.
When I ask you how you can do it, your mind is far away and you are biased.
Picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, you can leisurely see the Nanshan Mountain.
The mountain air is getting better day by day, and the birds are flying back and forth.
There is a true meaning in this, but I have forgotten to explain it.
Returning to the Garden and Living in the Fields (Part 1)
Tao Yuanming
The young man has no suitable vulgar charm, and his nature loves hills and mountains.
I accidentally fell into the dust net and passed away for thirty years.
The tame birds miss the old forest, and the fish in the pond miss their old abyss.
Open up the wilderness in the south, stay humble and return to the garden.
The square house covers more than ten acres and has eight or nine thatched houses.
The elms and willows shade the back eaves, and the peach and plum trees in front of the hall.
The distant village is warm and the smoke is lingering in the ruins.
Dogs bark in the deep alleys, and roosters crow at the top of the mulberry trees.
The courtyard is clean of dust and clutter, and the empty room has plenty of leisure.
After being in a cage for a long time, you can return to nature.
1 Introduction
Tao Yuanming is a famous man and essayist who has a profound influence in the history of Chinese literature. In particular, his pastoral poems opened up a new realm for Chinese classical poetry and cleverly combined Emotion, scenery, and reason are combined to describe rural scenery and pastoral life. The poetry style is fresh and natural, the description is delicate, and it has strong artistic charm. ?
Tao Yuanming's poems can be divided into three parts: narrative poems, philosophical poems and pastoral poems. There are about 60 poems in total, and about 30 pastoral poems, accounting for about half. Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems occupy an extremely important position in the history of Chinese poetry and are the foundation works of Chinese pastoral poetry. He inherited the fine tradition of ancient agricultural poetry, expanded the subject matter of poetry, and made new breakthroughs in thought and art. He was unique in the poetry world of the Eastern Jin Dynasty where metaphysical poetry was prevalent, and opened up a new path for the development of poetry. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, a large number of poets and poems famous for their pastoral poems emerged one after another, and they were all directly or indirectly influenced by Tao Yuanming. ?
Tao Yuanming’s pastoral poetry was produced in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty and was closely related to the social and cultural background at that time. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the landlord manor economy further developed. After the Yongjia Rebellion, the gentry landlords who fled south, under the protection of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, set up farmland and plundered land, and class conflicts increasingly intensified. In the field of thought and ideology, the metaphysical trend of advocating nature and advocating clear talk is extremely popular. Coupled with the widespread spread of Buddhism, Confucian classics have temporarily declined. At that time, the gentry literati often lived a corrupt life and had a decadent will. They sought spiritual sustenance from the "mysterious and mysterious" Taoism of Lao and Zhuang. Some indulged in landscapes and lived in seclusion to escape reality. Therefore, in the field of literature, metaphysical poetry and landscape poetry became popular for a while. On the contrary, some literati and officials who were dissatisfied with reality felt deeply that their official career was dark, so they abandoned their official positions and returned to seclusion to work on their own to explore the true meaning of life and seek a place for personal peace and quiet. They gradually distanced themselves from the ruling group and became closer. To the broad masses of working people. Tao Yuanming is an outstanding representative of these literati and officials. ?
Tao Yuanming’s pastoral poetry creation also has its unique personal life experience and ideological foundation. He was born into a declining gentry landlord family, lived in a rural environment as a teenager, and the scenery of his hometown provided ample nourishment for his thoughts and creations. When he returned from being an official, he "didn't have any accomplishments at all. He only visited the farmhouses and Lushan Mountain to visit" ("Book of Jin·Yi Yi Biography"). In the second half of his life, he spent a long time in rural areas within a hundred miles. He mostly came into contact with villagers in the fields, talked mostly about rice, wheat, mulberry and hemp, and lived a poor life with rough food and clothing. Long-term rural life practice provides an inexhaustible source of life for his pastoral poetry.
In addition, personal life aspirations have an important impact on his pastoral poetry creation. "There is little to suit the vulgar rhymes, but my nature is to love hills and mountains" (Part 1 of "Returning to the Garden and Living in the Fields") expresses his ambition to love "hills and mountains" since he was a child. "Looking at the clouds, the birds are getting taller, and the fish are ashamed to swim near the water" ("A Zuo, the Sutra of Suppressing the Army and Joining the Army") expresses his character of longing for freedom. Although we cannot simply emphasize the influence of a writer's personal temperament on the choice of life path and literary creation, there is no reason for us to ignore this point.