Tao Yuanming is a famous figure and essayist with far-reaching influence in the history of China literature. His pastoral poems, in particular, have opened up a new realm for China's classical poetry, skillfully combining emotion, scenery and reason to describe rural scenery and rural life. His poetic style is fresh and natural, with delicate description and strong artistic charm. ?
Tao Yuanming's poems can be divided into three parts: narrative, philosophy and pastoral poetry, about 60 poems, and about 30 pastoral poems, accounting for about half. Tao Yuanming's pastoral poetry occupies an extremely important position in the history of China's poetry and is the cornerstone of China's pastoral poetry. He inherited the fine tradition of ancient agricultural poetry, expanded the theme of poetry, made a new breakthrough in thought and art, and was unique in the Eastern Jin poetry circle full of metaphysical poems, which opened up a new road 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, all of which were directly or indirectly influenced by Tao Yuanming. ?
Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems were produced in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, which 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, under the protection of the Eastern Jin regime, the gentry landlords who fled to the south set up fields and plundered land, and class contradictions became increasingly fierce. In the ideological field, the metaphysical atmosphere of advocating nature and speaking freely is extremely prosperous, but with the widespread spread of Buddhism, Confucian classics temporarily decline. Scholars at that time often lived a decadent life, seeking spiritual sustenance from Taoism of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and some indulged in mountains and rivers to escape from reality in seclusion, so metaphysical poems and landscape poems prevailed in the literary field for a while. On the contrary, some literati who are dissatisfied with reality feel that their careers are dark, so they quit their jobs and retire, devote themselves to food, explore the true meaning of life, seek a place for individuals to settle down, and gradually distance themselves from the ruling group, thus getting closer to the working people. Tao Yuanming is an outstanding representative among these literati. ?
Tao Yuanming's pastoral poetry also has his unique personal life experience and ideological basis. He was born in a declining gentry and landlord family, and the young people lived in a rural environment. The scenery of his hometown and native land provided sufficient nourishment for his thoughts and creations. When he came back to be an official, he "accomplished nothing but visited Lushan Mountain" (Biography of the Book of Jin). In the second half of his life, he lived in the countryside of Fiona Fang Baili for a long time. In Sang Ma, he contacted villagers in the fields, talked about rice and wheat, and lived a poor life with no clothes and no food. Long-term rural life practice provides an inexhaustible source of life for his pastoral poems.
In addition, personal life ambition also has an important influence on his pastoral poetry creation. "The little one loves Qiushan naturally" (one of "Returning to the Garden") expresses his ambition to love Qiushan since he was a child. "Looking at the clouds, the birds are getting higher and higher, and swimming is ashamed" (Qu Azuo, the town army joined the army for the first time) expressed its desire for freedom. Although we can't simply emphasize the influence of the writer's personal temperament on the choice of life path and literary creation, there is no reason for us to ignore this point. ?
What is the life content reflected in Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems?
Tao Yuanming entered the official career around the age of 30, either out or in. In the end, because he didn't want to bow to the "five meals", he resigned, retired to the countryside, stopped traveling, started a real hermit life, and wrote a lot of pastoral poems. These pastoral poems reflect rich and colorful life contents. After returning to his hometown for the first time, Tao Yuanming painted his happiness in rural life with a pen. This is fully expressed in his Poem "Coming to the Garden", especially in the poem "Returning to the Garden": no vulgar rhyme, naturally love autumn mountains. Fall into the dust net by mistake, thirteen years. Birds in cages are often attached to the forests of the past, and fish in ponds yearn for the abyss of the past. I want to open up wasteland in Minamino and keep my humility to the fields. The house is surrounded by about ten acres of land, thatched cottages. Willow trees cover the eaves, and peach trees cover Li Lieman in front of the hospital. The neighboring village of the neighboring village is faintly visible, and there is smoke in the village. Dogs bark in deep alleys, and mulberry trees crow. There is no dust and sundries in the yard, and the quiet room is comfortable and leisurely. Trapped in a cage without freedom for a long time, I finally returned to the forest today.
This poem is full of joy of escaping from the cage and gaining freedom. He finally freed himself from the "dust net", like a bird returning to the forest and a fish returning to the deep pool, and he breathed a long sigh of relief happily. In his eyes, the scenery near his hometown is very kind, just like the reunion of old friends who have been away for many years. I can't help but blurt out their names to vent my uncontrollable passion. Fang Zhai, Cao Wu, Liu Yu and Tao Li all seem to welcome him with open arms. With life, the crowing of dogs is full of poetry. This is in stark contrast to the frustrating trap of officialdom and the bumpy career path. After retiring to the countryside, Tao Yuanming took part in agricultural labor himself. He realized that life in the world must work, or he would suffer from hunger and cold. He wrote the poem "Encourage Agriculture":
Integrity is easy to live, but peace is hard to last. The lack of wings brings beauty, and the drowning person is coupled. He is wise and talented, diligent and diligent, and has a large number of people, dragging his feet!
People's livelihood is diligent, but diligence is not lacking. A quiet feast, smiling and proud wings every year! No stone, hunger and cold, shameless! ?
With more contact with working people and more participation in agricultural labor, Tao Yuanming realized the hardships of farmers' ploughing more deeply:
Life belongs to the Tao and food and clothing are solid. Don't camp, protect yourself. In spring, I try to do business, and my working years are considerable. Be diligent in the morning and return it during the day. There are two buildings in the mountains, and the atmosphere is cold first and then hot. Isn't Tian Jia bitter? It is difficult to resign. Four-body sincerity is fatigue, and ordinary people are no different from doing it. ("Geng Shou grabs early rice in Xitian in mid-September")?
Labor is not easy for a scholar-bureaucrat and an intellectual, but the poet has realized that labor is necessary. He has feelings for the life of farming, sympathizes with the sufferings of farmers, and has frequent contacts with farmers: farming belongs to farmers, and he loves acacia in his spare time, but he is naked and talks and laughs endlessly. (migration 2)?
From "lovesickness" to "talking and laughing", we have established the same thoughts and feelings with farmers. Look at the second part of Return to the Garden:
When complex market music, grass * * *. When we meet, we don't talk about worldly affairs, only that the garden is long in Sang Ma. My field is growing higher and higher, and my cultivated land is expanding day by day. Often worried about sudden frost, crops wither like shrubs. ?
As you can see, after living in the fields for a long time and taking part in productive labor, Tao Yuanming developed a set of * * * languages with farmers, which is very valuable for a scholar-bureaucrat and intellectual. ?
Agricultural songs occupy a large space in Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems. As a participant in agricultural labor, Tao Yuanming wrote a lot of rural life in his poems with a sense of self-satisfaction, which is a pioneering work in the history of China's poetry. In addition to poems reflecting farming, he also wrote many beautiful rural natural scenery and joyful life scenes. As mentioned earlier, "the village is warm and far away, and there is smoke in Iraq"; "Dogs bark in deep alleys and chickens crow at the top of mulberry trees"; "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence and seeing Nanshan leisurely" shows perfect life interest and folk characteristics. ?
In a word, Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems not only reflect his personal pastoral life experience, but also reflect the rural life at that time, which is both poetry and history. ?
3. The ideological contradiction reflected in pastoral poetry?
Works are not only a reflection of the writer's real external life, but also a mirror of the writer's spiritual life. Tao Yuanming died in his early years and experienced ups and downs in his career. After middle age, he plowed the land, suffered from rain and dew, and gradually grew old, witnessing the great changes in dynasty replacement. Undeniably, his pastoral poems are "detached and quiet", which embodies the leisure and self-satisfaction of feudal literati. However, due to the extreme political depression in his early years and extreme poverty in his later years, his poems are not only detached from the world, but also ecstatic. From his pastoral poems, we can also see his inner pain and contradiction. ?
First of all, there is the contradiction between the Confucian thought of "using the world" and the Taoist thought of "avoiding the world". He said in the poem "Drinking": "Teenagers are poor in personnel and swim well in the six classics". Six Classics refers to the Confucian Six Classics. This vividly reflects that Tao Yuanming was deeply influenced by Confucianism since he was a child, and naturally understood the truth of Confucianism's "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order and governing the country to level the world" and more clearly understood the "three immortals" advertised by Confucianism. Let's take a look at his poem:?
When you are young, there is no joy. I am eager to escape from all over the world. I am in Philip Burkart. ("Miscellaneous Poems" V)?
Obviously, Tao Yuanming had a great reward when he was young, and he dreamed of making achievements and flying high. However, his ideal has not been realized. "The moon and abandon people, intentionally don't hire. It is sad to think about it, but they will never be quiet "(the second part of the miscellaneous poem), which shows that he also had anxiety about his career. Although he later tried to cover this up and claimed that he was just an official who supported his family, we can understand that his original ambition was not the case. Only after experiencing setbacks in his official career did he retire to the countryside. He didn't really forget the reality. He was born a hermit. ?
Seclusion in the countryside is another protest against the dark reality. Confucianism advocates that "wealth can help the world, and poverty can protect itself" and that "there is a way in the world, but there is no way to hide". The appearance of hermits itself has proved that the reality at that time was "there is no way in the world"
Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems not only reflect the Taoist consciousness of advocating nature, but also show the side of psychological leisure and self-enjoyment. In particular, Zhuangzi's world outlook of conforming to nature has a far-reaching influence on him, but he has not forgotten the world. He often struggles fiercely in his own spiritual depths between "being independent" and "helping the economy", "being an official" and "retiring". His poem "Spring is not bitter, but always afraid of suffering". Why is there such anxiety? It shows that the ideas of "being an official" and "being hidden" are struggling with each other. He is afraid that he will change his mind one day and go out to be an official, thus living up to his current ambition. ?
Secondly, the contradiction between the social reality of suffering and the utopian ideal. This is deeply reflected in Peach Blossom Spring. The ideal of Peach Blossom Garden obviously bears the traces of Confucius' thought of "great harmony" and Laozi's thought of "small country and few people". But its appearance is not only a simple copy of Confucius and Laozi's thoughts, but also has the characteristics of the times. The sky is in the sky, and the design of "Peach Blossom Garden" just shows the desire of the broad masses of people to get rid of their sufferings and establish an ideal society of "harvesting silkworms in spring and paying taxes in autumn". At the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the gentry and landlords annexed a lot of land, and those who lost their land left their homes and fled to the mountains. Tao Yuanming lived in the countryside for a long time, and lived with people from all walks of life in the countryside for a long time. He shared joys and sorrows with them, had close contacts and sincere feelings, and was very familiar with and understood their painful lives and good wishes. On this basis, the poet designed the Peach Blossom Garden, an ideal society without exploitation and oppression. However, the ideal of Taoyuan was an unattainable utopia at that time. Tao Yuanming knows this, and he can't find the way to the Peach Blossom Garden any more. Even so, the ideal of Taohuayuan lit a torch in the long night of feudal society. Through the Peach Blossom Garden, people can compare the unfair world in which they live, thus inspiring people to rise up and resist. It is precisely because the poem Peach Blossom Spring shines with humanitarian brilliance that it represents the highest achievement of the poet's ideological development and artistic practice. ?
Landscape pastoral poems reflect Tao Yuanming's thoughts in many ways, and the contradictions in his thoughts are not only reflected in the above two aspects. Literature itself is a symbol of depression, and so are Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems. From his elegance and freedom, we can vaguely find his mental pain. "I sigh with tears and listen to Chen Si" and "I am helpless, I am a slap in the face", which shows that he is not cold and forgetful to the world. Passive seclusion and drowning his worries in wine can't eliminate the contradictions in his thoughts. Today, when we read Tao's poems, we should not only appreciate his beautiful and natural poems, but also understand the profound meaning behind them.
4. What are the artistic features of pastoral poetry?
Tao Yuanming's pastoral poetry is a treasure in the history of China literature, which created an important school of classical poetry in China and made great achievements in art, especially in describing rural scenery and rural life, which is unique and gives readers beautiful enjoyment with its strong artistic charm. The artistic features of Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems are various. In his works, pastoral and labor have real aesthetic significance for the first time. His poetic tradition was inherited and carried forward by many poets in later generations. For example, Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, Chu Guangxi, Wei, Liu Zongyuan and others in the Tang Dynasty are all successors of this tradition. Great poets such as Li Bai, Bai Juyi, Xin Qiji and Su Shi were directly or indirectly influenced by Tao Yuanming, which shows the artistic influence of Tao poetry. ?
The artistic features of Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems can be summarized as the following four aspects. ?
4. 1 fresh brushwork. This is in sharp contrast to the metaphysical poems popular in the poetry circles at that time, which are vague, obscure and tasteless. Tao Yuanming's description of pastoral landscapes never pursues gorgeous language and superficial modeling, but follows the nature, is fresh and natural, and has endless charm. For example, "under the east fence of picking chrysanthemums, you can see Nanshan leisurely." The mountains are getting better every day, and the birds are coming back every day "(the fifth part of Drinking). This beautiful evening scene is presented to us with the poet's understanding against the backdrop of Nanshan Mountain. In this poem, the word "sword" embodies the charm of the whole poem. The beauty of the word "Jian" is that it means that Nanshan is naturally reflected in the eyes, touched by the poet's accidental glance when picking chrysanthemums, and only a leisurely mood can be obtained. If the word "hope" is used instead, it is a deliberate pursuit, which has no meaning and does not correspond to "carefree". This poem typically embodies Tao Yuanming's fresh and natural brushwork. This brushwork is too numerous to mention in Tao's poems. For example, "A dog barks deep in an alley and a chicken crows at the top of a mulberry tree" (one of Return to the Garden), which is very good and intriguing. ?
4.2 Delicate description. Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems are rooted in rural life, and his personal feelings about rural life are integrated into his poems. The most common square houses and grass houses, with trees and flowers, near the smoke far from the village, and chickens and dogs barking, all show infinite vitality and form a beautiful pastoral picture. Let's take a look at his poem:?
Alone in a sense of loss, I returned to my hometown with a staff member. The road was bumpy and in shock. The mountain stream is shallow and meets my feet. Filter out the new wine at home and cook chicken for the neighbors. When the sun sets, the candle is lit instead. The height is high and the height is short, and the east is getting white. ("Return to the Garden" Part V)?
The meaning of the poem is: come back from the rugged mountain road with crutches, and wash your feet in the mountain stream first. Then pour a pot of wine, kill a chicken, invite neighbors and have a few drinks. When the sun goes down, I light it with a torch, but I hate that the night is too short. This poem shows a strong feeling of life and shows Tao Yuanming's keen observation of rural beauty and rural life. He is good at choosing poetic themes and giving people beautiful enjoyment through delicate descriptions.
4.3 Plain language. Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems can be passed down through the ages, which has a lot to do with the simplicity of his language. Tao Yuanming's unique life experience, simple rural life and simple rural scenery require the use of simple language and painting techniques similar to "Tianjiahua" as much as possible, thus forming a plain and natural style of rural poetry, and achieving the artistic effect of "one word is natural and meaningful, and extravagance is exhausted" (Yuan Haowen's Thirty Poems). Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems have a strong flavor of peasant life and also reflect the poet's own character. Let's take his second poem Migration as an example:
There are many beautiful days in spring and autumn, and new poems are written on the mountain. It's better to call each other after crossing the door, so there's wine to consider. Farming goes back to hometown, and leisure needs acacia. Acacia put on her clothes and laughed endlessly. This truth is invincible, and inaction will come to this place at once. Food and clothing should be disciplined, and efforts should not be bullied. ?
Poetry and wine blend together, get together and talk and laugh, have no worries about food and clothing, and never forget to work hard. The dull country life is so poetic in his works. He didn't carve words, cut clouds and embroider the moon, but wrote them truthfully with simple colloquial sentences. His poems look unpretentious, but they are catchy to read. Another example is "the good and the bad are also new." Although you haven't measured your age, you are happy about many things. "You vividly described the natural scenery in simple and concise language. Reading this poem seems to present a vast field, with cool breeze, green crops rippling and full of business. Such a simple, clear, vivid and natural language has naturally won the favor of more readers in history. ?
4.4 The artistic realm of emotion, scenery and reason. In poetry creation, it is very important to integrate emotion, scenery and reason, and emotion is the most important. Without the scene of love, there is no life, and without the reason of love, it is even more empty. Jing Heli's works will lose their vitality if there is no strong emotional infiltration. In Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems, birds, animals, flowers and mountains are full of deep thoughts and feelings; At the same time, the poet is good at combining emotion with reason, visualizing his deep understanding of life and reality, and closely combining poetry with philosophy and scenery, giving people a fresh and natural feeling without being boring. For example, the poem "Returning Birds" has obvious implications from beginning to end. This tired returning bird is the symbol of the author's personality. Every move of the bird reflects the poet's thought and character, and every scene in the poem is full of Tao Yuanming's emotional color. Another example is the fifth chapter of Drinking Poems: "Building a house depends on human feelings", which can't be said to be an idyllic poem, nor can it be said to be a poem of mourning, let alone a philosophical poem, because the scenery, emotion and reason in the poem blend together, penetrate each other and set off each other. No matter from which angle you appreciate it, you can appreciate different wonders and enjoy endless beauty. This profound and mellow artistic realm determines Tao Yuanming's irreplaceable position in the history of China literature. ?
5 concluding remarks
Tao Yuanming's literary achievements, especially his pastoral poems, have been the focus of people's research for thousands of years. His pastoral poetry has its social and cultural background, which reflects the rich content of social life, and also reflects the ideological contradiction between his official and seclusion, his hope and disappointment, and his pain and joy. This shows the complex thoughts and feelings of feudal intellectuals who were born in troubled times and didn't get their talents. Even after they retired, they didn't forget politics and didn't really settle down. His poems are plain, simple, natural, simple and tasteful, and his language is true, simple, concise, clear, popular and concise. At that time, in an era of advocating sculpture, pursuing form and being welcomed by couples, he rose suddenly and was unique, and his works were simple, beautiful, vivid and expressive, which was of great progressive significance. The pastoral style he pioneered opened up a new realm for classical poetry. ?