Tao Yuanming's thought is a special "natural" philosophy, which is based on the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi and harmonizes the thoughts of Confucianism and Taoism. His ideal society is a "natural" society. He often combines the simple and indisputable ancient world invented by Confucianism with the social model of small countries and few people advocated by Taoism and praises it as an ideal world. For example, the poem "Encourage Agriculture" says: "You were born in ancient times, proud and self-sufficient, simple and true." The poem "Fu Bao" said: "Huang can't catch it, he is alone." The poem "Drinking" said: "Xi Nong has been away from me for a long time, and there are few true feelings in the world!" The same idea, with the help of novels, is vividly expressed in The Peach Blossom Spring. In this "natural" society, everyone works intensively, lives honestly, and there is no competition, no fraud, and even no monarch or minister. In Tao Yuanming's view, history is a process of degeneration. Due to people's excessive material desires, endless competition has resulted in all kinds of hypocritical, pretentious and cruel behaviors, which have plunged society into darkness.
However, in ancient times, leisure was hard to find and heaven was nowhere to be found. Tao Yuanming can only regard simple rural life as a realistic but very limited sustenance of his social ideal.
As a part of natural life, Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems also wrote about agricultural labor; During his retirement, he also participated in farming. What is the significance of his manual labor in his economic life? About is very limited, even, maybe it is dispensable. The practical significance of this farming is that it embodies a belief of Tao Yuanming. "Geng Xunian's September Harvest of Early Rice in Westfield" begins with: "Life belongs to the Tao, and food and clothing are solid. I don't want to camp, but I want to be safe! " Self-cultivation and self-reliance are ideal social and personal lifestyles. Although the poet can't actually do this, he tried, which is remarkable. At the same time, he said, "Isn't Tian Jia bitter? It is difficult to resign. Four-body sincerity is fatigue, and ordinary people are no different from doing it. Wash under the eaves and fight for wine. " Here, I wrote about the hardships of manual labor and the psychological peace and happiness it brought.
In addition, Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems also involve the question that literature has been focusing on since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty: What is the meaning and value of life? How can life be liberated? In this regard, we first see that Tao Yuanming is more anxious about the fact that life is short than anyone in his contemporaries. There are only more than 100 poems in existence, but there are dozens of poems that mention "old" and "dead". However, in philosophy, he has an open-minded explanation, which is most clearly expressed in the group poem "Form, Shadow and Spirit". The poet borrowed the dialogue style of ci and fu, which made Xing put forward the attitude of drinking and forgetting everything (which is close to 19 ancient poems), so that he should emphasize the pursuit of achievement and make a name for himself (which is close to Jian 'an literature). In fact, both of them are hard for Tao Yuanming to give up, but as the final philosophical conclusion, he denied the first two in the third Interpretation of God, thinking that daily drunkenness hurts the body and seeking fame and virtue is only an external pursuit, which is meaningless. It should be: "The waves are getting bigger and bigger. I don't like them and I'm not afraid." You should do your best, there is no need to worry about it. "That is, naturalization, without consciously pursuing something other than life, is liberation without seeking liberation.
To sum up, Tao Yuanming's social outlook and outlook on life are all centered on "nature". The society he yearns for is a peaceful and peaceful society with self-cultivation, no competition, no hypocrisy, no mutual oppression and harm; The life he pursues is simple and sincere, indifferent and lofty, entrusted with transportation, and has nothing to ask for; His favorite living environment is also a quiet and natural country. Because of these pursuits, most of his pastoral poems present a diluted and peaceful appearance, which was called "silence" by predecessors, but behind it, they are full of hatred and anxiety about the real society and the short life. In other words, "silence" is an aesthetic realm constructed under the control of "natural" philosophy, and the internal motivation to arouse this pursuit is precisely a high degree of anxiety.
Tao Yuanming is not the only one whose main feature is to downplay peace. He also wrote some poems directly related to real politics or directly expressing his strong inner feelings. For example, the poem "Drinking Wine" is obscure, but its content is related to some political events in the Jin and Song Dynasties, so there is no doubt. Another example is "A Long History of Grazing Sheep". I'm glad to have Yixi's Northern Expedition to break Chang 'an's thirteen-year Song Wudi Yu War. "Sage, everything is in the capital. Don't forget to swim and don't cross the river. The nine realms have just merged into one, and death will manage the boat. " It embodies the distinct national feelings. In addition, several articles in Ode to Jing Ke and Reading the Classics of Mountains and Seas express sympathy, admiration and praise for some heroic images in history and myths and legends, although they are still glorious and never give up, and have a generous and tragic style. At the end of Ode to Jing Ke, I wrote, "I'm not good at fencing. Sorry, I can't make my wonderful work. Although he is dead, he has a thousand years of feelings! " It clearly reveals the passion in the poet's heart. Mr. Lu Xun pointed out that Tao poetry has both a "quiet" and a "carefree" side, and it also has a "king kong glare" side, mainly referring to these works. However, it should be noted that the two are not diametrically opposed.
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. So he seldom uses rich colors, exaggerated intonation, abstruse vocabulary and uncommon allusions. Antithesis is often used in his poems, but most of them are primitive and not so particular. His poems are very emotional, but they are really strong and rarely fluctuate. But combined with calm philosophical thinking, it presents a clear and distant artistic conception, which is unprecedented and difficult to achieve. (Anonymous)