陶渊明tao Yuanming

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

陶渊明tao Yuanming “Drinking Wine” Tao Yuanming 《饮酒》陶渊明 Tao Yuanming (365? –427), is the literal name of Tao Qian (陶潜), a major poet during Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). Chinese poets typically have multiple literary names, given by themselves to express certain qualities or ideals the poet looks for. In this case, Yuan (渊) means “deep water”; Ming (明), literally means “bright”. Tao Yuanming was born into a time known in China’s history as notoriously chaotic. The territory we know today as “China”, was essentially split into two parts in general: The North was taken over by non-Chinese nomads, first establishing16 smaller kingdoms and later was united into what’s called “Northern Dynasties”; the South, ruled by Chinese emperors, started as Eastern Jin, then went through four consecutive short-lived dynasties until 589 A.D., hence collectively called “Southern Dynasties”. In a divided time, Tao Yuanming was the best-known poet who first celebrated an individual, solitude life before Tang Dynasty. His poems seem to demonstrate his ability to accept and absorb Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. Such spirit tends to resonate with poets generations after him, until today. Tao Yuanming, abandoning an unsuccessful political career, retreated to his gardens and fields, and dedicated most of his poems reflecting, justifying and proclaiming life enjoying farming, gardening and the nature, which is reflected in this poem. In fact, since Tao Yuanming, a new school of poetry on gardens and fields(田园诗), was initiated. For more of the language, culture and history of the poem, please visit the complete Read-Aloud session of “Drinking Wine” (《饮酒》) on China Institute’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZvOIf99t6g&list=PLz- 17ZzYlEqluTIGsHsfD_5fiSpMAJfBS&index=2 yǐn jiǔ 饮 酒 Drinking Wine 作 者: 陶 潜 táo qián(陶渊明,táo yuān míng)( 365? – 427 ) Author: Tao Qian (Tao Yuanming) 翻译/Translation by Stephen Owen Jié lú zài rén jìng ér wú chē mǎ xuān I built a cottage right in the realm of men, 结 庐 在 人 境, 而 无 车 马 喧。 yet there was no noise from wagon and horse. wèn jūn hé néng ěr xīn yuǎn dì zì piān I ask you, how can that be so? 问 君 何 能 尔? 心 远 地 自 偏。 — when mind is far, its place becomes remote. cǎi jú dōng lí xià yōu rán jiàn nán shān 采 菊 东 篱 下, 悠 然 见 南 山。 I picked a chrysanthemum by the eastern hedge, off in the distance gazed on south mountain. shān qì rì xī jiā fēi niǎo xiāng yǔ huán 山 气 日 夕 佳, 飞 鸟 相 与 还。 Mountain vapors glow lovely in twilight sun, where birds in flight join in return. cǐ zhōng yǒu zhēn yì yù biàn yǐ wàng yán 此 中 有 真 意, 欲 辨 已 忘 言。 There is some true significance here: I want to expound it but have lost the words. .
Recommended publications
  • Downloaded 4.0 License
    Return to an Inner Utopia 119 Chapter 4 Return to an Inner Utopia In what was to become a celebrated act in Chinese literary history, Su Shi be- gan systematically composing “matching Tao” (he Tao 和陶) poems in the spring of 1095, during his period of exile in Huizhou. This project of 109 poems was completed when he was further exiled to Danzhou. It was issued in four fascicles, shortly after his return to the mainland in 1100.1 Inspired by and fol- lowing the rhyming patterns of the poetry of Tao Qian, these poems contrib- uted to the making (and remaking) of the images of both poets, as well as a return to simplicity in Chinese lyrical aesthetics.2 Thus far, scholarship has focused on the significance of Su Shi’s agency in Tao Qian’s canonisation. His image was transformed through Su’s criticism and emulation: Tao came to be viewed as a spontaneous Man of the Way and not just an eccentric medieval recluse and hearty drinker.3 In other words, Tao Qian’s ‘spontaneity’ was only created retrospectively in lament over its loss. The unattainability of the ideal is part and parcel of its worth. In this chapter, I will further examine what Su Shi’s practice meant for Su Shi himself. I argue that Su Shi’s active transformation of and identification with Tao Qian’s image were driven by the purpose of overcoming the tyranny of despair, deprivation and mortality. The apparent serenity of the “matching Tao” poems was therefore fundamentally paradoxical, a result of self-persua- sion.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Tao Yuanming/Tao Qian: “Twenty Poems About Drinking”
    Reading Tao Yuanming/Tao Qian: “Twenty Poems about Drinking” Massimo Verdicchio (University of Alberta) Abstract: Tao Qian’s “Twenty Poems about Drinking” have been read as autobiography, and as being about his life as a recluse and about drinking. In my paper, I analyze the twenty poems as forming one narrative unit, in order to show that the subject of the poems is about poetry, just as much as it is about drinking, and I discuss their implications for a poetics of Tao Qian. Keywords: Tao Qian, Hightower, Ashmore, poetry, wine Robert Ashmore’ study of Tao Qian (365?-427) has been instrumental in putting into perspective the life and work of this great Chinese poet, his indebtedness to the ancient past as well to his historical present, which has made it possible to capture the more subtle implications of his poetry. Most of all, as the title of his book indicates, The Transport of Reading, he has drawn attention to the implications of “reading” as “a mode of transport” not only to better understand Tao Qian but also to determine how reading had an impact on his poetry: “how Tao Qian created a distinctive and origi- nal poetics out of the materials provided to him by traditions about text and reading” (Ashmore 4). His approach is for the most part historical but it provides a useful background to place Tao Qian’s poetry into perspective and to eliminate many of the misconceptions and hypotheses that have been made on his account. In this essay I would like to emphasize another aspect of “reading” on which Ashmore only touches indirectly since it is not his main focus.
    [Show full text]
  • Tao Yuanming's Perspectives on Life As Reflected in His Poems on History
    Journal of chinese humanities 6 (2020) 235–258 brill.com/joch Tao Yuanming’s Perspectives on Life as Reflected in His Poems on History Zhang Yue 張月 Associate Professor of Department of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, China [email protected] Abstract Studies on Tao Yuanming have often focused on his personality, reclusive life, and pas- toral poetry. However, Tao’s extant oeuvre includes a large number of poems on history. This article aims to complement current scholarship by exploring his viewpoints on life through a close reading of his poems on history. His poems on history are a key to Tao’s perspectives with regard to the factors that decide a successful political career, the best way to cope with difficulties and frustrations, and the situations in which literati should withdraw from public life. Examining his positions reveals the connec- tions between these different aspects. These poems express Tao’s perspectives on life, as informed by his historical predecessors and philosophical beliefs, and as developed through his own life experience and efforts at poetic composition. Keywords Tao Yuanming – poems on history – perspectives on life Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 [ca. 365–427], a native of Xunyang 潯陽 (contem- porary Jiujiang 九江, Jiangxi), is one of the best-known and most-studied Chinese poets from before the Tang [618–907]. His extant corpus, comprising 125 poems and 12 prose works, is one of the few complete collections to survive from early medieval China, largely thanks to Xiao Tong 蕭統 [501–531], a prince of the Liang dynasty [502–557], who collected Tao’s works, wrote a preface, and © ZHANG YUE, 2021 | doi:10.1163/23521341-12340102 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0Downloaded license.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture Notes, by James Cahill
    Lecture Notes, by James Cahill Note: The image numbers in these lecture notes do not exactly coincide with the images onscreen but are meant to be reference points in the lectures’ progression. Lecture 9B: Political and Poetic Themes in Southern Song Painting As we move into a period from which more reliable work survives, we can begin to address big concerns such as political themes in court painting, and poetic painting. The latter, poetic painting, means different things to different people; I myself gave a series of lectures that turned into a book titled The Lyric Journey: Poetic Painting in China and Japan (Harvard University Press, 1996). As I acknowledge in that book, there are a number of ways one can define poetic painting in China; I certainly donʹt claim that mine is the only right one, or even that itʹs the best way. In a broad sense, a lot of Southern Song Academy and academy‐style painting can be called poetic, either because it was done in response to couplets and quatrains of poetry presented to the artists by the emperor or others in the court, or simply because they knew that their imperial patrons preferred paintings that could be called poetic. I will develop that theme more as we move further into Southern Song painting; but I want to keep it always problematic, not a quality that one can define clearly or identify easily in paintings. Political Themes and Dynastic Restoration 9.13.1: The Virtuous Brothers Po‐I and Shu‐chʹi in the Wilderness Picking Herbs, early copy after Li Tang, handscroll, Palace Museum, Beijing.
    [Show full text]
  • A Politico-Religious Reading of Tao Qian
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses July 2015 Dwelling in the Vision of Utopia: A Politico-Religious Reading of Tao Qian JIANI LIAN University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2 Part of the Chinese Studies Commons Recommended Citation LIAN, JIANI, "Dwelling in the Vision of Utopia: A Politico-Religious Reading of Tao Qian" (2015). Masters Theses. 234. https://doi.org/10.7275/7084254 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/234 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DWELLING IN THE VISION OF UTOPIA: A POLITICO-RELIGIOUS READING OF TAO QIAN A Thesis Presented By JIANI LIAN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2015 Asian Languages and Literatures DWELLING IN THE VISION OF UTOPIA: A POLITICO-RELIGIOUS READING OF TAO QIAN A Thesis Presented By JIANI LIAN Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________________ David K. Schneider, Chair _____________________________________________ Enhua Zhang, Member _____________________________________________ Zhongwei Shen, Member ________________________________________________ Stephen Miller, Program Head Asian Languages & Literatures Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures ________________________________________________ William Moebius, Department Head Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest gratitude goes to my advisor, David K. Schneider, who initiated me into the reading and study of Tao Qian and offered me with thoughtful and patient guidance on all stages of this project.
    [Show full text]
  • Keynote Speech I Utopian Landscapes: from Thomas More's Utopia to Tao Yuanming's Peach Blossom Spring
    Keynote Speech I Utopian Landscapes: From Thomas More’s Utopia to Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring Fang Fan and Xue Qian School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China Email: [email protected]; [email protected] [Abstract] The concept of “Utopia”, with a long history in western culture, shares a lot with the philosophy of “Peach Blossom Spring” in the Chinese culture (See Appendix I). By analyzing British writer Thomas More’s Utopia and Chinese poet Tao Yuanming’s “Peach Blossom Spring”, this paper tries to illustrate how both writers present a harmonious nation, society and culture, giving solutions to problems, and therefore, modeling an ideal society and a better future. Thomas More and Tao Yuanming put similar ideas into different literary practices, giving insightful Utopian landscapes even in today’s world. [Keywords] Utopia, Peach Blossom Spring, Utopian landscapes Introduction In the long process of history, the idea of “Utopia” (meaning “nowhere”) has a long-standing influence on western cultural tradition. In ancient Greece, Aristophanes (BC446-385) once made an ideal aspiration of society in The Birds (BC414), describing “a republic of wood-pigeons in clouds”. The concept of Utopia can be dated back to Plato’s (BC427-347) The Republic (around BC380), while the word of “Utopia” was first adopted by British writer Thomas More. The implication and expression of Utopia vary from a literary expression to the blueprint of an ideal political policy of a society, even to the psychological status of pursuing a happy life, and finally can be generalized as a plan for any future.
    [Show full text]
  • Course Form for PKU Summer School International 2020
    Peking University Summer School International 2020 Course Form for PKU Summer School International 2020 Classical Chinese Poetry Course Title 中国古典诗词 Teacher MEI Shenyou First day of classes June 29, 2020 Last day of classes July 24, 2020 Course Credit 2 credits Course Description Objective: As a time-honored genre, poetry enjoyed an unrivalled status in classical Chinese literature. This course offers a survey of classical Chinese poetry by studying its evolution from about the 11th century B.C to the 12th century AD, when poetry had almost passed the zenith of its development. We shall study its two major forms — Shi poetry & Ci poetry (song lyrics) — and examine their various modes by focusing on the most representative works in history, particularly by ten major poets, with due attention to their distinctive life experience and the cultural context of each poem. By the end of the term, students will be enabled to cultivate their capacity for independent appreciation and to catch a glimpse of the breadth, depth and wealth of classical Chinese poetry. Pre-requisites Some basic knowledge of Chinese is preferable, but not mandatory. Proceeding of the Course This is a lecture/seminar-combined class. On class days, when a new genre or poet is being introduced, I will introduce at the very beginning some relevant historical and cultural background information, followed by students’ discussion. Generally, we focus on one genre/poet for each session. All the study materials will be in English. I shall find the best translations available, sometimes along with the Chinese original and relevant audio readings.
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Classical Chinese Poetry Through Reception Studies
    Article How to Cite: Zhang, Yue. 2019. Teaching Classical Chinese Poetry through Reception Studies. ASIANetwork Exchange, 26(1), pp. 75–95. DOI: https:// doi.org/10.16995/ane.241 Published: 19 June 2019 Peer Review: This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of ASIANetwork Exchange, which is a journal of the Open Library of Humanities. Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Open Access: ASIANetwork Exchange is a peer-reviewed open access journal. Digital Preservation: The Open Library of Humanities and all its journals are digitally preserved in the CLOCKSS scholarly archive service. The Open Library of Humanities is an open access non-profit publisher of scholarly articles and monographs. Yue Zhang ‘Teaching Classical Chinese Poetry through Reception Studies’ (2019) 26(1), pp. 75–95 ASIANetwork Exchange, DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/ane.241 ARTICLE Teaching Classical Chinese Poetry through Reception Studies Yue Zhang Valparaiso University, US [email protected] This paper discusses the contribution reception studies can make to the pedagogy of Chinese poetry. It introduces the major theoretical concepts of reception studies, and then demonstrates how those concepts can be applied in and incorporated into courses on Chinese poetry, using examples of “poetry of fields and garden” and “poems on history” drawn from the author’s own experience teaching courses in Chinese poetry in the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Workshop Report: “On Muzhiming” Second Workshop of the New Frontiers in the Study of Medieval China,Reed College,May 23–24, 2016
    Early Medieval China, 22. 75–80, 2016 WORKSHOP REPORT: “ON MUZHIMING” SECOND WORKSHOP OF THE NEW FRONTIERS IN THE STUDY OF MEDIEVAL CHINA,REED COLLEGE,MAY 23–24, 2016 JESSEY J.C. CHOO Rutgers University, USA, ALEXEI DITTER Reed College, USA The second workshop of the New Frontiers in the Study of Medieval China Series on Muzhiming was held on May 23–24, 2016, at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. The workshop was organized by Jessey Choo (Rutgers University), Alexei Ditter (Reed College), and LU Yang (Peking University), and funded by the Tang Research Foundation, the Office of the Dean of Faculty and the Chinese Department of Reed College, and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University. This workshop brought together sixteen leading US and international scholars studying medieval China and muzhiming from different disciplinary perspectives: Robert Ashmore (University of California, Berkeley), Stephanie Balkwill (University of Southern California), Stephen Bokenkamp (Arizona State University), Jessey Choo (Rutgers University), Tim Davis (Brigham Young University), Alexei Ditter (Reed College), Patricia Ebrey (University of Washington), Paul Kroll (University of Colorado Boulder), LU Yang (Peking University), LUO Xin (Peking University), David McMullen (University of Cambridge), MENG Xianshi (Renmin University of China), RONG Xinjiang (Peking University), Anna Shields (Princeton University), WANG Ping (University of Washington), and YAO Ping (California State University-Los Angeles). In addition, four graduate students who work with mu- zhiming in their research received travel grants to attend—BAI Yuzhou (Princeton), Ken Morrow (UT-Dallas), Lucas Wolf (ASU), and WEN Xin (Harvard). This second workshop narrowed the spatial focus to muzhiming produced within or excavated from the area of medieval metropolises (Yecheng, Chang’an, and Luoyang), while broadening the temporal scope to include muzhiming dating from the fifth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Self-Representation in Early Medieval Chinese Poetry: the Literary Selves of Ruan Ji, Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun, and Bao Zhao
    Self-Representation in Early Medieval Chinese Poetry: The Literary Selves of Ruan Ji, Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun, and Bao Zhao The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Monaghan, Kate. 2019. Self-Representation in Early Medieval Chinese Poetry: The Literary Selves of Ruan Ji, Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun, and Bao Zhao. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42029791 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA ! ! "#$%&'#()#*#+,-,./+!.+!0-)$1!2#3.#4-$!56.+#*#!7/#,)18! 96#!:.,#)-)1!"#$4#*!/%!';-+!<.=!9-/!>;-+?.+@=!A.#!:.+@1;+=!-+3!B-/!C6-/! ! D!3.**#),-,./+!()#*#+,#3! E1! F-,#!2/+-@6-+! ,/! 96#!G#(-),?#+,!/%!0-*,!D*.-+!:-+@;-@#*!-+3!5.4.$.H-,./+*! ! .+!(-),.-$!%;$%.$$?#+,!/%!,6#!)#I;.)#?#+,*! %/)!,6#!3#@)##!/%! G/J,/)!/%!76.$/*/(61! .+!,6#!*;EK#J,!/%! 0-*,!D*.-+!:-+@;-@#*!-+3!5.4.$.H-,./+*! ! L-)4-)3!M+.4#)*.,1! 5-?E).3@#=!2-**-J6;*#,,*! ! 2-1!NOPQ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! R!NOPQ!F-,#!2/+-@6-+! D$$!).@6,*!)#*#)4#3S ! ! ! #"$$%&'('")*!+,-"$)&.!/"()0%"!1"(*! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!2('%!3)*(45(*! ! 6%7089%:&%$%*'('")*!"*!;(&7<!3%,"%-(7!=5"*%$%!>)%'&<.! 15%!?"'%&(&<!6%7-%$!)0!9@(*!A"B!1()!C@(*D"*4B!/"%!?"*4<@*B!(*,!E()!F5()! ! !"#$%&'$(
    [Show full text]
  • Freer Gallery of Art F1919.119 1 Trad. Attr. To: Li Gonglin 李兯麟(Ca. 1049
    Freer Gallery of Art Completed: 07 August 2007 F1919.119 Last updated: 06 May 2010 Trad. attr. to: Li Gonglin 李兯麟 (ca. 1049–1106) Title: Tao Yuanming Returning to Seclusion 《陶淵明歸隱圖》 Tao Yuanming guiyin tu Dynasty/Date: Northern Song, early 12th century Format: Handscroll Medium: Ink and color on silk Dimensions: 37.0 x 521.5 cm (14-9/16 x 205-5/16 in) Credit line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer Accession no.: F1919.119 Provenance: K.T. Wong, Shanghai Literary theme: The painting illustrates a famous 60-line poem titled Guiqulai ci 歸去來辭 (Returning Home), by Tao Qian 陶潛 (365–427), who became an iconic figure in Chinese culture.1 The text of the poem is written in seven separate passages that accompany the seven painted sections of the scroll, Physical description:2 Wrapper of fitted patterned silk, with white fabric title label, and two inscribed white fabric end labels. Outside label on brocade flap. Frontispiece, with signature and seals; new mounting before and after. Two old front mounting silks, with four inside labels: three on mounting silk 1, one on mounting silk 2. Seven demarcated sections of painting, ink and color on silk; no artist signature or seals. Each painting section preceded by passage of inscribed text. Two old back mounting silks: mounting silk 3, with six (6) collector seals, and mounting silk 4, with one colophon and four (4) seals. Separately mounted colophon on silk, with signature and one (1) collector seal; new silk mounting before and after. Three colophons on attached paper, each with 1 Freer Gallery of Art Completed: 07 August 2007 F1919.119 Last updated: 06 May 2010 signatures and two (2) seals.
    [Show full text]
  • Sites of Chinese Literature
    Sites II Oxford Handbooks OnlIne Sites II Wendy Swartz The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature Edited by Wiebke Denecke, Wai-Yee Li, and Xiaofei Tian Print PublIcatIon Date: May 2017 Subject: Classical Studies, Ancient Prose Literature OnlIne PublIcatIon Date: Apr 2017 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199356591.013.29 Abstract and Keywords This chapter examines sites that were situated In nature (mountains and rivers, temples), modeled after nature (parks and estates), Inspired by nature (urban sanctuaries such as private gardens and temples), or defined by theIr distance from the capital court (roads leading away from the polItIcal or cultural center). WritIngs on these sites commonly treated the themes of exIle from the capital, retreat from court lIfe, personal cultIvatIon, or the beauty and mystery of nature. Sites In nature and the polItIcal center at tImes converged In these writIngs whereby these sites could reInforce or augment the authority of Imperial power (the Imperial park or the temples of prevIous dynastIc founders). Keywords: nature, mountains, rivers, parks, gardens, temples, roads, court THIS chapter surveys sites that were by and large associated wIth nature and defined In part by theIr distance from the capital court (urban sanctuaries such as private gardens or temples, roads that led away from the cultural or polItIcal center, gentry estates, and mountains and rivers). WritIngs about these sites are thus often associated wIth the themes of retreat from court lIfe, personal cultIvatIon, the beauty and mystery of nature, or exIle from the capital. The seat of polItIcal power and sites In nature, however, converged at tImes In such a way that these sites were used to reInforce or enhance the authority of Imperial power (as wIth the Imperial park or the temples of prevIous dynastIc founders).
    [Show full text]