Dongpo and Tao Yuanming lived in different eras. Su Dongpo was in a great era. That era was the era of freest speech in Chinese history. Whether Wang Anshi reformed or Sima Guang abolished the law, they all had the same purpose, which was to make the country rich and powerful and the people live and work in peace and contentment. Although Su Dongpo's political views were sometimes incompatible with theirs, he still had a passionate and sincere heart, a soaring ambition, a burning passion, and a positive and enterprising hope. Therefore, even if his official career is ups and downs and his official career is difficult and dangerous, he will not put on his robe, leave his official career, and stay away from the world. Even when he retired to the countryside, he always walked into the secluded landscape with one foot and stayed in the human world he loved.
Compared with Su Dongpo's era, Tao Yuanming seemed much unfortunate. He lived in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, when rulers frequently usurped and murdered, the nobility was corrupt, the clan system was strict, class conflicts were very acute, and politics were extremely dark. The dark reality at that time had forced out the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" such as Ruan Ji and Ji Kang who were dissolute. Tao Yuanming was also excluded by the clan system. In that era, no matter how studious and knowledgeable he was as a young man, and no matter how outstanding the poems, poems and essays he wrote, he could not realize his political ambitions. This is the reason why Tao Yuanming's career failed, and it is also the reason why Tao Yuanming stayed away from the world with his decisive attitude.
Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming have different typical meanings. Su Dongpo is a unique genius in the history of Chinese culture and a rare all-rounder. With his miraculous writing style, profound knowledge, wise thoughts, noble personality, rich experience, and great achievements, he has set up a monument in the history of Chinese culture and in the hearts of people of all generations! There is no doubt that his achievements are far beyond the reach of anyone living today. To quote Lin Yutang’s evaluation, “Su Dongpo was an incorrigible optimist, a great humanitarian, a friend of the people, a great writer, a great calligrapher, an innovative painter, a wine-making experimenter, an engineer, and a false Taoist. A hater, a yogi, a Buddhist, a great statesman, an emperor's secretary, a drunkard, a compassionate judge, a political insistent, a moonlit wanderer, a poet, a man of nature A humorous person who loves to joke. "The great thing about him is that he has more diverse talents, rich emotions, humorous language, and open-minded mentality than any official or hermit in Chinese history. .
Tao Yuanming was only known as a hermit at the time, and his literary creations were not highly evaluated. This was because his plain and natural style was inconsistent with the gorgeous writing style advocated at the time. Xiao Tong was the first person to discover the literary value of Tao Yuanming, and he admired both his personality and his literature. In the Song Dynasty, especially through the promotion of Su Shi and Zhu Xi, and the interpretation of his works by Tang Han, Tao Yuanming truly established his lofty status in literary history. This status has been maintained to this day, and he has gained world reputation. Tao Yuanming is also a representative of the Wei and Jin Dynasties who lived in poverty and respected nature. He was a spiritual destination and spiritual home for Chinese scholar-officials. After many scholar-officials were frustrated in their career or tired of officialdom, they often returned to Tao Yuanming's belief that he would not give up for five buckets of rice. It's rare to get up in spirit, find new life value from him, and use it to comfort yourself. Bai Juyi, Su Shi, Lu You, Xin Qiji, etc. are all like this. Therefore, not giving up for five buckets of rice has become a fortress in the spiritual world of Chinese scholar-officials to protect their freedom of choice. And plain nature has become a noble artistic realm in their minds.
Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming had different reasons for returning to the countryside. Su Dongpo was forced to come to Huangzhou where he was demoted after surviving a catastrophe in the "Wutai Poetry Case". Not only did he live a life of hard work and subsistence, he was also likely to be sentenced to death by the court at any time. , Throw away your life. Fortunately, Su Shi was a broad-minded man. As a politician with great talents and broad plans, he could still enjoy hardships in Huangzhou and live in poverty. Disasters and hardships could not weaken his firm belief in life. Living a pastoral life in Huangzhou only shows that he was unable to realize his political ambitions politically. He only turned his attention to the mountains and rivers when he was frustrated in his official career; he was not just satisfied with living in the countryside where "the mountains are high and the moon is small, and the water comes out." Leisure days spent blowing in the wind at night, drinking wine, and writing poems. One day, he would also realize his political ambitions.
The biggest difference between Tao Yuanming and Su Dongpo is that he voluntarily resigned and went into seclusion. As long as he is willing, he can make a comeback at any time and get tired of eating that "five buckets of rice". Tao Yuanming saw the decay of society, but had no power to change it, so he had no choice but to pursue his own moral perfection. He saw the crisis of society, but could not find the right way to save it, so he had to seek help from the return of human nature. After returning to seclusion, Tao Yuanming was willing to be busy farming, socializing, and drinking every day, leading a self-sufficient and leisurely life. This kind of seclusion life makes him like a bird that has been locked in a cage for a long time. He finally follows his heart and returns to nature. There is no doubt that after he retired to seclusion, he fully enjoyed the taste of a scholar and scholar, "entertaining poetry and wine, advocating nature, enjoying family relationships, experiencing farming, caressing pain, and never forgetting worries." Tao Yuanming's thoughts can be summarized as follows: by eliminating the acquired "false self" that has been influenced by the secular world, in order to return to a "true self". This can be found in the poetic realm he created himself.
Comparing the lives of Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming, we can also discover many similarities between them.
The two men have always been regarded as models by Chinese scholars for their talents, conduct as people and officials, and their attitude towards advancement and retreat. In terms of talent and learning, they were all young and eager to learn, knowledgeable, and wrote excellent poems and articles. They were among the most talked about literati in the history of Chinese literature. As a person, they can maintain their integrity and independent personality in adversity, and never follow the crowd; as an official, they can insist on serving as an official and benefiting one place; in terms of life attitude, they can live an ordinary life even if they retreat to the countryside. life and maintain an optimistic and open-minded attitude. The connotation of what Mencius said, "If you are poor, you can be good for yourself; if you are rich, you can be good for the world." The connotation of this sentence can be well reflected in them.
Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming had similar living conditions and aspirations in retiring to the countryside. They all farmed by themselves, built thatched cottages by themselves, and lived a simple life. But Tao Yuanming's freedom and ease was what Su Dongpo yearned for. It can be said that Tao Yuanming placed his trust in mountains and rivers, while Su Dongpo placed his trust in Tao Yuanming, that is, both of them placed their trust in mountains and rivers. Su Dongpo has a line from "Jiang Cheng Zi" as evidence: "I woke up from a dream and was drunk. It is only clear. It is the past life. I have traveled through the world, but I still work hard. Last night, the spring rain on Dongpo was abundant, and the crows were happy, reporting a new sunny day. . //The sound of a dark spring lies on the west side of the snow hall. The creek flows across the mountain in the south, and the solitary beauty of Zeng City is here. I am still old. "Tao Yuanming's "Gui Lai Ci" became the word "Shaobian": "Isn't it a joy to have the children sing it, and then follow it to the east slope, let go of the grass, and buckle the horns to make a knot?" All these show that in spirit, Su Dongpo had Tao Yuanming's perception of abandoning the bustling and dirty world, letting the waves rise and fall, and not expecting life and death. In Huangzhou, Su Dongpo indeed lived the same reclusive life as Tao Yuanming. In just two years and seven months, Su Dongpo and Tao wrote as many as forty-seven poems, almost echoing Tao Yuanming's poems. "Only Yuanming is the predecessor", which shows Su Dongpo's yearning for Tao Yuanming. And this yearning was actually Su Dongpo's spiritual weapon when he was in misfortune. He saw another style of life and another joy of life from Tao Yuanming.
The life realms of Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming are similar. Tao Yuanming's life realm was admired by Su Dongpo. Therefore, after Su Dongpo arrived in Huizhou, he was able to actively follow Tao Yuanming's footsteps, such as "Luofu Zhichuan boundary, dreaming of traveling there." "I want to live in Jiuyuan and return alone with Yuanming." "I am ashamed that I have been with you for thousands of years. Paintings of me and Yuan Ming can be used as pictures of three people." Scattered poems such as "Hand in hand with Ge and Tao, I will return home again" can give a glimpse of the poet's mind. Su Shi felt that he, Ge Hong and Tao Qian, could paint a picture of the Three Scholars, and take a leisurely journey, pursuing a pastoral life that returned to nature, was simple and leisurely, and transcended. This shows that he was determined to follow Yuan Ming's example. After experiencing unjust imprisonment and life and death, Su Dongpo "happily enjoyed the countryside", which was a rest for his soul. Therefore, we can often find the shadow of Tao Yuanming in Su Shi. Of course, objectively speaking, although Su Dongpo's realm of life became increasingly refined, it was still slightly inferior to Tao Yuanming's realm. After all, their personalities and pursuits are very different. Because Tao Yuan was in hiding and did not serve out of his own free will, Dongpo had no choice but to do so. No wonder Dongpo "was deeply ashamed of Yuanming and wanted to teach him as a teacher in the evening festival just in case."
When Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming lived a life of "working hard to support themselves", their wives and concubines could live in poverty and happiness. , share joys and sorrows with them. Tao Yuanming resigned and returned home, living a life of "self-financing". His wife, Mrs. Zhai, has always been of the same mind as him and enjoys being poor and humble. At the beginning of their return to seclusion, "the husband farmed in front and the wife hoeed in the back", and they "opened up the wilderness in the south and returned to the countryside" to maintain their lives. Then they used "more than ten acres of square houses" to build " There are eight or nine thatched houses," with willow and elm trees planted behind the house and peach and plum trees in front of the house. Even in Tao Yuanming's later years, when his life became increasingly poor and he fell into a situation of hunger and cold, his wife, Zhai, stayed true to his poverty without any regrets. When Su Dongpo was demoted to the deputy envoy of the Huangzhou Tuanlian League due to the "Wutai Poetry Case", he was short of money and could not make ends meet. He often had to worry about running out of food and lived an extremely poor life. Fortunately, his wife Wang Runzhi and his concubine Wang Chaoyun were willing to stay in civilian clothes and work with Jingchai. He worked together, farmed and supported himself, and with the guidance and help of farmers, he built five huts together. With the help of his wives and concubines, Dongpo spent the most difficult four years in Huangzhou. After the death of his wife Wang Runzhi, Su Dongpo, who was demoted to Huizhou, even after "sitting in ruins for many years and not daring to return to the gentry", gradually became "unknown to others" and "never saw a single word of his relatives or friends in his life, and even if he wrote to him, he would not reply". In the desolate evening scene, his concubine Wang Chaoyun still never abandons him and treats him affectionately.
The pastoral life of Su Dongpo and Tao Yuanming also has an obvious common feature, that is, they both praise labor, personally participate in productive labor, respect the working people, be close to the working people, and can communicate with the working people. Live together and have great fun. As a literati official in a feudal society, he could go out early and return home late to work hard and be able to mingle with the working people. This was not easy to achieve when the literati and officials despised labor in the society at that time. It was also very important in the history of Chinese literature. Rarely, their labor itself has progressive significance, and at the same time, it also gives their pastoral poems a flavor of labor life. It not only describes the poets' participation in labor, but also promotes the truth of relying on labor to eat. This view is indeed very rare. of.
What is particularly rare is that their feelings for the working people are very sincere. Su Dongpo said of himself, "I am a literate farmer." Tao Yuanming said in a poem: "When we come together and return, we will work with our neighbors." In the song, people are walking around in the grass. When they meet, there are no words, but the road is full of mulberry and hemp." From this, we can see the close relationship between the two poets and the working people.