How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context by Zong-qi Cai

Author:Zong-qi Cai
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press

FIGURE 8.1  Tao Jingjie (aka Tao Qian or Tao Yuanming), by Shangguan Zhou 上官周 (1665–1752?) in Portraits from the Hall of Late Blossoming 晚笑堂畫傳 (Wanxiao tang hua zhuan). Qing dynasty woodblock print edition (1743), reprinted by the Shanghai Journal Office 申報館 (Shenbao guan) as Zhu Zhuang’s Portraits from the Hall of Late Blossoming 晚笑堂竹莊畫傳 (Wanxiao tang zhuzhuang hua zhuan) (1921).

In contrast, many discussions—probably the great majority—have presented Tao Qian as Daoist, and much of his writing and his life as it has been represented certainly could demonstrate some general Daoist characteristics, even without consensus on what is meant by “Daoist.” After all, among other things, there are more than a few likenesses to the Zhuangzi in his writing, and he portrayed himself as living a private life in reclusion in a rural setting, attending to the seasonal work of the poor farmer, communing with his rustic neighbors, playing his qin, reading and composing, spontaneous in action, unworried about material conditions, strongly individualistic, and, of course, drinking to drunkenness, musing on the great Dao, accepting his lot, and facing death with equanimity. This, too, is Tao Yuanming, and some of his most iconographic portrayals and most repeated lines issue from this context. The Daoist religion has recorded Tao Qian biographical accounts in several specifically Daoist hagiographical compilations. And even his “Mr. Five Willows,” entirely fictive and not specifically Daoist at all, so fit a sort of idealized composite “Daoist” persona that, by the late Tang period, Mr. Five Willows was canonized as a god in the broad pantheon of the Daoist religion, with sway over one of the minor Daoist terrestrial heavens—which just happened to be Tao Qian’s home.

Tao Qian’s style has often been characterized as overtly unembellished in diction, straightforward in exposition, and quite free of the ornate encumbrances of many of the writings of his contemporaries. This may contribute to helping readers feel closer to the writer and not distanced through allusive and ornate “constructed” lines. Similarly, his candid exposition of his lifeways over the years encouraged readers to see a genuineness in his writings that they could relate to. Did Tao Qian himself have this in mind? In the “Elegy” by his friend Yan Yanzhi, Yan quotes him as saying:

If one’s person and talents are not real,

身才非實

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.