Chapter 18 Tao Yuanming three

When he was middle-aged, he failed several times in "studying to be an official" before he saw it through.Not only does he see through the officialdom, he also sees through himself.For a person like him, it is impossible not to return. "Isn't Tianyuan General Wuhu coming back?" He returned to Shangjingli and Yuantian Residence.The former is an old house, and the latter has his family's land, which scholars have verified to be more than ten acres.He didn't expect some things that happened later, such as a fire in Sonoda Residence, and the house burned down.In times of calamities and military turmoil, he was so poor that he stopped drinking and starved:

Come and drive me away, I don't know why.Walk to Sri, knock on the door and speak clumsily. This is already tossing and begging, and the hungry and shy situation is beyond words.He Zhi: Where to go.Xing Xing: go and go.Sri: Here.It is estimated that he walked far away from home, and knocked on the door with awkward words.But when he resigned as the county magistrate of Pengze, he didn't expect to be reduced to this point.But all five of his sons survived, and he was a worthy father.He begged in a foreign land, and the coarse food he collected was distributed to five pairs of little hands.

Due to the high taxes and wars, farmers are precarious.In his life, Yuanming went hungry three times, namely in youth, middle age and old age.As short as half a month, as long as half a year. A Japanese scholar, whose name I forgot, asserted that Tao Yuanming lived in the countryside and cared about Vanity Fair. This person is nonsense.There are indeed many hermits in the Wei and Jin Dynasties who took advantage of "hiding" to become famous and jumped into officialdom from the mountains and forests, but the problem is: Tao Yuanming is not a hermit at all. "Book of Jin" included him in the "biography of hermit", taking the official position: a talented and famous person, if he is not in the government, he is a hermit.There is also a kind of hermit, who has enough official positions and enough money, moves to the countryside, walks in all directions, shakes his head and recites a few ancient poems.Hermits are mentioned in Tao Yuanming's poems, but isn't there more in his "Ode to the Poor", "Ode to Jingke", and "Ode to the Classic of Mountains and Seas"?He lived the life of an ordinary person. If he couldn't stay in the officialdom, he would go home and farm. It was later generations who honored him as the tablet of the "Zong of Hermit Poets".He has become a puppet.

When we read him, we want to restore his true nature. I have read him for nearly thirty years, and never felt that he was a hermit.He is a husband and a father, he ran around the government, he plowed the fields, he loved wine and beautiful women, he experienced sickness and death, he hoped that his son would be successful... He did not lack for everything in the world, he did not make alchemy, he did not indica , don't learn the art of longevity, and oppose being a god, why do you say he is a hermit? At that time, there was a saying of "three hermits in Xunyang": three county magistrates in Xunyang resigned and returned to their fields one after another, and Yuanming was one of them.But we need not take such claims too seriously.At that time, hermit hats were flying all over the sky. Tao Yuanming was a county magistrate, but when he resigned and returned home, hermit hats flew on his head.If his quality is low, he will show it off; if he wants to gain fame, he will use this hat to make a fuss, and one day he will make a comeback and jump back to Vanity Fair.In fact, we find that he never considered himself a hermit.The hat was given to him, and he took it too, and put it away, not knowing where to put it.

Reading Tao Yuanming is also the key point.These places especially need "careful thinking." Let's talk about Yuanming's life first.Read his poems later, and then look at the exciting details of his life that permeate the poems. Most of Yuanming's famous poems were written after he was forty years old.Prior to this, his main priority in life was to support his family.Young and middle-aged, he has what Lu Xun called "King Kong's glaring style" sentence: Xing Tianwu is a relative, and his strong will is always there.Xing Tian is a beheaded warrior who dared to fight the Emperor of Heaven in mythology, with the dry as a shield and the Qi as a long-handled axe.In ancient Chinese, these are common words.Lu Xun himself is a fighter, so he prefers these two sentences.But in troubled times, how does Yuan Ming dance with relatives?Rather, "Mengzhi" has been internalized into a rebellious personality, which "always exists" and cannot be changed for a lifetime.

Yuanming became an official at the age of twenty-nine, offered sacrifices to Jiangzhou, and was an ordinary clerk in the state capital. "Book of Jin" said that he: "My family was poor, and I started to sacrifice wine for the state. I was unbearable as an official, and I returned home after a few days." This passage shows that when he was young, his family's financial situation was not good, and he was a small official who relied on others. , It didn't take long to go home.The first time I "studied as an official", I almost handed in a blank paper.The state government also asked him to be the chief bookkeeper, a secretary-like job, writing official articles, and concocting fake things all day long, but he didn't go.The official position of the registrar is humble, but he is close to the leader and can be used as a springboard.Many young people want to go but can't.Yuanming "retired himself" in the position of sacrificial wine, and the leader sent someone to call him and ask him to be the secretary, but he politely declined.It seems that the leader misunderstood his resignation.

This year, the eldest son Tao Yan was born.The following year, the wife died, possibly of malnutrition.Yuanming was thirty-one years old and married the Zhai family.This is a hardworking and strong woman, educated and able to keep a house.Xiao Tong's "Tao Yuanming Biography" said: "His wife Zhai is also able to work hard, and her comrades." Xiao Tong is the editor of "Selected Works" and has made great contributions to the history of literature in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and before the Wei and Jin Dynasties. "Southern History" also said: "his wife, Zhai, has the same aspirations and interests. To be able to enjoy the bitter festival, the husband plows ahead, and the wife hoes behind." The ancients are very particular about their words. Hardworking and like-minded with her husband.Family life is harmonious, and there is joy in bitterness.If she complained, like many women today, who force their husbands to earn money from officials, Yuan Ming would not have written so many good poems.Through the Zhai family, it is not difficult for us to imagine that Yuanming lived happily for more than ten years.Zhai gave birth to four sons for him, plus Tao Yan five.Ancient women, this is amazing, she is a "hero mother".After more than 1,500 years, we pay tribute to her.

Yuanming learned to be an official for the second time, when he went to Jingzhou Mansion, when he was about thirty-five or sixteen years old.I have been working for more than a year and have not resigned voluntarily.When his mother passed away, he returned to his home for mourning, usually three years, sometimes two and a half years.This rule was set by the sage Confucius. The reason is: children must be three years old before they can speak and walk. Therefore, the death of parents must be mourned for three years.During the two or three years of Yuanming's funeral, life was good. The famous "Two Poems of He Guo Zhushu" was written at this time. Let's look at one of them: