Tao Yuanming: A Hermit's Pastoral Poems

Tao Yuanming (c. 365-427) was the greatest Chinese hermit poet, and his pastoral poems occupy a glorious place in the history of Chinese poetry. Tao Yuanming, with the courtesy name of Yuanliang, the given name of Qian, the alternative courtesy name of Yuanming and the alias of Mr. Wuliu, was born in a declining bureaucratic family. His father died early, but his family's poverty did not affect his determination to study hard. He read all kinds of books from Confucian classics to various "heterodox books." In his early years, he aspired to benefit people in the world but deeply loved nature and detested fame, fortune and secularity. The thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi influenced him deeply. From the age of 29, to make a living, he served as a low-level official (something like a magistrate). In the next 13 years, his official career was rough, and he served as an official sometimes and lived in seclusion sometimes. At the age of 41, unwilling to "bend the back for five bushels of rice," he finally resigned from his official post in anger, returned to his hometown Chaisang, became a hermit and tilled fields personally. In the next 22 years before his death, Tao Yuanming never came out from the mountains to become an official. He was contented in poverty and devoted to things spiritual, wrote poems, drank wine, and farmed and read books for self-amusement, showing his tranquil and noble state of mind.

Tao Yuanming's seclusion was of important and peculiar significance in the history of Chinese literature. First, Tao Yuanming's resignation from his official post and seclusion truly revealed his real personality, showed his thorough understanding of the dark side of the society, the dirty officialdom and life values, and manifested the poet's unique state of life and peculiar understanding of art. All people in the world deem Ah, homeward bound I go as Tao Yuanming's expression of his true feelings about seclusion:

Ah, homeward bound I go! Why not go home, seeing that my field and gardens are overgrown? Myself have made my soul serf to my body: why have vain regrets and mourn alone? Fret not over bygones and the forward journey take. Only a short distance have I gone astray, and I know today I am right, if yesterday was a complete mistake. Lightly floats and drifts the boat, and the wind gently flows and flaps my gown. I inquire the road of a wayfarer, and sulk at the dimness of the dawn.

Here, Tao Yuanming clearly revealed his determination to leave officialdom and never make "my soul serf to my body.'1 He wanted to live free and indulged in imagining how free and happy he would become after leaving officialdom and returning to the countryside! Ah, homeward bound I go is not a real description of the life of Tao Yuanming as a recluse but a description of how he felt when he had just decided to become a hermit and his aspiration to future life. Though this article is short, it has the style and beauty of metrical composition and is plain like all other poems by Tao Yuanming.

Picture of Yuanming's Drunken Return, painted by Zhang Peng in the Ming Dynasty, shows Tao Yuanming's bearing of a hermit drinking wine beside chrysanthemums.

Secondly, Tao Yuanming's seclusion itself had special connotations. Tao's seclusion was not a strategy. He really became a hermit and realized his life values in seclusion. Therefore, after becoming a hermit, he never wanted to become an official again and devoted himself to rural life wholeheartedly. People said that Tao Yuanming kindly communicated with farmers as their equal. Actually he had completely turned himself into a farmer. He did farm work and tilled land himself, not only suffering hardships, but also tasting the sweet. He laid a foundation for rural life through his labor and enjoyed unparalleled joy of life in this course. This is shown in the first of Five Poems of Returning to the Life of Farmers:

I've loathed the madding crowd since I was a boy

While hills and mountains have filled me with joy.

By mistake I sought mundane careers

And got entrapped in them for thirty years.

Birds in the cage would long for wooded hills;

Fish in the pond would yearn for flowing rills.

So I reclaim the land in southern fields

To suit my bent for reaping farmland yields.

My farm contains a dozen mu of ground;

My cottage has eight or nine rooms around.

The elm and willow cover backside eaves

While peach and plum trees shade my yard with leaves.

The distant village dimly looms somewhere,

With smoke from chimneys drifting in the air

In silent country lanes a stray dog barks;

Amid the mulberry trees cocks crow with larks.

My house is free from worldly moil or gloom

While ease and quiet permeate my private room.

When I escape from bitter strife with men,

I live a free and easy life again.

This poem truly portrays the happy mood and tranquil life after the poet's return to the countryside. After reflecting on his "entry into the secular world by mistake" 30 years before, the poet described his contentment and amusement in the countryside, the farm, cottage, the elm and willow, peach and plum trees, a barking dog and crowing cocks in natural and harmonious scene in detail. Of course, more importantly, people can feel how pure and happy the poet's state of mind was.

We should also see that though Tao Yuanming returned to nature and the countryside, his state of mind could not be as calm as stagnant water. The most beautiful landscape could not possibly sever the ties between the poet and the outside world. The second of his Miscellaneous Poems is as follows:

The white sun has sunk behind the west peaks, The pale moon arises from the east ranges. Vast luminance spreads over myriad leagues: What a view in the expanse of the blank heavens! Wind comes in through casements and entrance, My pillow and mattress in night s middle turn cold. Weather changes and I realize the season s different, Sleepless, I realize how endless is the night! I'm about to speak but theres no one to respond, Brandishing the cup I invite my shadow to drink.

Suns and moons have cast me aside, My lofty ambition hasn't been fulfilled. At the thought of this I feel sad, Restless the whole night through.

Tao Yuanming was a broad-minded person of ideals and integrity after all. He became a hermit to realize his life values but often thought about the outside world. The most tranquil life could not conceal the restlessness in the poet's heart, so "at the thought of this I feel sad, restless the whole night through"! This shows that Tao Yuanming's seclusion had abundant connotations. There was aspiration in disappointment, the wish to go far in joy and restlessness in tranquility. All these jointly constituted Tao Yuanming's broad mind, feelings and aspirations in reclusive rural life.

Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems formed its unique artistic characteristics. In terms of the overall style, Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems express his attitude towards nature with unique circumstances and modes, elaborate the aesthetic relationship between man and nature, and demonstrate the beauty of harmonious coexistence of man and nature with an elegant and indifferent sentiment. The fifth poem in his Drinking is famous and widely known:

Building me a hut in the human realm,

But I'm free from the clamor of horses and carriages.

How comes it to be so?

If my heart is aloof my dwelling will be remote. I gather chrysanthemums by my eastern hedge, Can vaguely see the southern hills. Mountain air is balmy at dusk, Birds fly back one after another. This scenery contains the true:

I forget what I was going to say before I even argue.

This is not just admiration of beautiful natural scenery or the poet's infatuation with the leisurely mood, but reaches the state of philosophy and the state of unity of man and nature and integration of things and himself.

Most of Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems with fresh and plain words depict rural life and give people a sense of reality. Many pastoral scenes depicted by the poet are familiar to people, e.g. the third one of his Five Poems of Returning to the Life of Farmers:

Under the southern hill I grow the pea and bean.

For the weeds the tender shoots are sparse and lean.

With the sun I rise the weeds to remove,

In moonlight, shouldering a hoe, I homeward move.

The narrow path is overgrown with long grass,

The evening dews wet my clothes as I pass.

I'm not so much worried about my attire.

As being unable to follow my cherished desire.

Everything is from very common daily life but contains the poet's life ideals. Without any preaching or long argumentation, it seems like muttering, easy to understand, natural, plain and pure. This is just a manifestation of the plural value of Tao Yuanming's reclusive life, charisma and literary style.