Chapter 14 4. The Concealment of Tao Yuanming

Like Liu Ling and Ruan Ji, Tao Yuanming was also addicted to alcohol. Tao Yuanming is Tao Qian, and Yuanming is his character.Because he was the county magistrate of Pengze (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi) for a short time, he was also called Tao Pengze.The magistrate of Pengze County was entitled to three hectares of public land according to law, and Tao Yuanming actually ordered all of them to be planted with sorghum for wine making, claiming that as long as he could get drunk often, he would be satisfied.Later, it was only because of the strong protest of my wife that I agreed to allocate 50 mu to plant japonica rice.

It's a pity that Tao Yuanming couldn't wait for the sorghum to mature, because the higher authorities sent a postal supervisor.The postal supervisor is an inspector sent by the county guard to various counties to supervise the county magistrates and magistrates.When Liu Bei was the captain of Anxi County, he hung his crown and left because he couldn't stand the arrogance of the governor.Moreover, it was not Zhang Fei who whipped Duyou in a fit of anger, but Liu Bei himself. This time it was Tao Yuanming's turn. When Duyou came to Pengze, the subordinates in the county reminded the chief: Your Excellency must dress neatly and respectfully before going to see him.Tao Yuanming also couldn't bear this uselessness, so he immediately took off his official seal and ribbon and resigned.It's just that he didn't let Duyou take a whip, but left a famous saying:

Tao Yuanming went home, and he will never be an official again. Now it seems that it is very likely that he will no longer be an official.According to Tao Yuanming himself, the county magistrate, who had only been in office for more than 80 days, originally planned to wait a year before leaving.But his sister died suddenly, so he had to resign and go to the funeral in November of the first year of Yixi (AD 405).Whether it is sorghum or japonica rice, I am afraid it has not been planted yet! So even why Tao Yuanming resigned suddenly, whether it was because of the postal supervisor or because of his sister, it became a case of no suspense.Five sixths of three hectares of sorghum and one sixth of japonica rice are just talking.

But after resigning from office, Tao Yuanming seems to be in a particularly comfortable mood.He described his return like this: the boat swayed and drove slowly on the river, and the river wind blew the clothes on his body.When I met a passerby on the shore, I asked how far the road ahead was, only to feel that the dawn was too late. Homecoming is like an arrow! I was even more happy when I got home.Servants and children greeted him at the door, but he ran all the way when he saw the door.The path in the courtyard has been deserted, but fortunately the pine trees and chrysanthemums are still there, and what is even more pleasing is that there are wine bottles in the cellar.Then sit under the south window and pour yourself a drink!Do you see that the clouds floating in the valley are scheming?The birds that have returned to their nests are just tired.

Everything feels so natural and it feels so good to be home! Tao Yuanming, determined never to be an official, began his pastoral life.In fact, he had already participated in agricultural labor before he became the magistrate of Pengze County, and this time he just returned to his old job.However, Tao Pengze's technical level does not seem to be flattering, because the result of "planting beans under the southern mountain" turned out to be "grass full of bean sprouts". Fortunately, Tao Yuanming's farming is not for making a living, but for his heart.A family with a child servant would probably not count on the contribution of the male master in agricultural production.So he can take a leisurely stroll in his own yard, and his idyllic life is difficult but full of poetry:

In the early morning, amidst the crowing of cocks and the barking of dogs, houses in the distance can be seen faintly, and the smoke from his own village is rising. This is the most common scene in the countryside, but in Tao Yuanming's eyes, it is so fresh, peaceful and contented. Of course, the fields in his eyes are also very charming: Chou (read such as chip) is the field.How intoxicating is the breeze blowing from afar on the flat fields, and the thriving seedlings are thriving! Such verses are of course immortal, and Tao Yuanming won the title of "Pastoral Poet" for this reason, and is even regarded as a typical example of a true hermit.Because he is not like some people who are called hermits, the purpose of reclusive life is to raise his social status.Tao Yuanming never came out of the mountains again, and the only people he associates with are farmers:

What a "but dao sang hemp grows"!All he cared about was the harvest. Even farmers can't stand it.It is said that one morning, a farmer came to visit Tao Yuanming with a jug of wine.The kind-hearted farmer said sincerely to the idyllic poet: Our kind of place should not be condescended by you, sir.Now that the whole world is in the same boat, why can't you go with the tide? Tao Yuanming declined the farmer's offer.He said: Jiangshan is easy to change, but nature is hard to change.We still drank this bar together!I won't change my mind. Later, Tao Yuanming wrote this incident into a poem:

Poetry is good poetry, things can be doubted, and there is no need to be true.However, when I heard someone knocking on the door early in the morning, I went to greet him before I even had time to put on my clothes. This kind of mood and psychology is real.Clearly, Tao Yuanming longed for human contact.He may avoid officialdom and politics, but he does not avoid society. In fact, he may not even care about politics.It is said that Tao Yuanming wrote poems and compositions with dates, and never used Liu Song's year name.In other words, he did not recognize Liu Yu's Song as a legal regime, and only Jin was in his mind.

So, why didn't he become a promoted official? The official position is too small. The idyllic poet is really a hermit, would he think the official is too small? Yes, because the ancestors of the Tao family were extremely prominent.His great-grandfather, Tao Kan, was an official general, was promoted to the rank of Grand Sima, was in charge of the military affairs of eight prefectures, and concurrently served as the governor of two prefectures (one of which was Jingzhou).What a heroic figure this is! No wonder Tao Yuanming called Duyou a "village man". No wonder he was "unbearable to be an official" and wanted to resign.

That's right, he couldn't bend that noble waist. It's a pity that by Yuanming's generation, the Tao family had already declined, becoming a ruined noble or a ruined gentry.However, blood, spirit and character seem to be inherited from generation to generation.Therefore, deep in Tao Yuanming's heart, there is an arrogance and nobility that is difficult for ordinary people to perceive.It's just that this kind of inner strength is heroic in Tao Kan, but it looks normal in Yuanming. However, the most unusual thing is precisely in the seemingly ordinary.On the Double Ninth Festival in the second year after he resigned from the post of Pengze County Magistrate, Tao Yuanming, who had no alcohol, sat among the chrysanthemums by the side of the house, filled his hands with chrysanthemums, and wrote this famous line through the ages:

Perhaps, this is the true image of Tao Yuanming.Here, "see" cannot be mistaken for "hope".Look, it is deliberate, not leisurely.Only when I saw Nanshan inadvertently, can there be extreme splendor in the plain. Only in this way is the style of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.