• Tao’s poetry fully reflects the unease and anxiety that beset Chinese society at this time.
2020/12/09
2
Tao Yuanming/ Tao Qian (365-427)
• At the same time, it strikes a rare note of peace and contentment that, though only sporadic, seems to hold out some hope for escape from sorrow and suffering.
• When his wife and sons earnestly begged him to plant ordinary rice, then he had 250 acres planted with glutinous rice and 50 with plain.
2020/12/09
7
Tao Yuanming
2020/12/09
4
Tao Yuanming
• He did not fare well in this and subsequent posts.
• He longed for the quiet rural life of his birthplace.
• His last post, that of magistrate of Pengze (a small place), and he quit after only eighty days, retiring to the countryside to become a farmer for the remainder of his years.