Tao Yuanming

Lore & Background

Tao Yuanming was born in Chaisang (modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi) during the Eastern Jin dynasty. His great-grandfather was the eminent Jin general and governor Tao Kan (259–334). His grandfather and father both served as government officials, rising to the level of county governor, but his family lived in moderate poverty. His father died when he was eight years old. In the middle of his life, Tao changed his name from Tao Yuanming to Tao Qian, meaning 'hiding,' after the Eastern Jin dynasty's demise in 420, to signify his final withdrawal from political life. He also used the sobriquet 'Master of the Five Willows' in his youth, as recorded in a surviving autobiographical essay. Tao is also known for owning an unstrung guqin, claiming he did not need to bother with the sounds of the strings to value the instrument.

Reader's Guide

Tao Yuanming is now regarded as the foremost representative of Fields and Gardens poetry. His inclusion in the 6th-century literary anthology Wen Xuan implies he began to gain fame in his own era, at least in his birth area. During the Northern Song dynasty, Su Shi and other literati praised him as a model of authenticity and spontaneity, predicting lasting literary fame. Tao is also known for owning an unstrung guqin, claiming he did not need the sounds of the strings to value the instrument—a reference that became common in later literature and art, including a portrait by Chen Hongshou and a depiction in Jin Guliang's Wu Shuang Pu.

Did You Know?

• Tao Yuanming changed his name from Tao Yuanming to Tao Qian after the Eastern Jin dynasty fell in 420, using 'Qian' (meaning 'hiding') to signify his final withdrawal from political life.
• He owned an unstrung guqin and claimed he did not need to bother with the sounds of the strings to value the instrument.
• His great-grandfather was the eminent Jin general and governor Tao Kan (259–334).
• During the Tang dynasty, a naming taboo forced scribes to substitute the character 'shen' for 'yuan' in his name, because Emperor Gaozu's personal name was Li Yuan.
• The incident of 'Three Laughing Men at Tiger Creek' involved Tao Yuanming, Buddhist priest Huiyuan, and another scholar, and later became a subject for paintings.

The Recluse's Daily Life

Tao Yuanming's chosen life after abandoning officialdom was not an eremitic lifestyle or extreme asceticism but rather a comfortable dwelling with family, friends, neighbors, musical instruments, wine, a nice library, and the beautiful scenery of a mountain farm—his compensation for giving up the lifestyle of a government servant. He spent his time farming, reading, drinking wine, receiving the occasional guest, and writing poems reflecting on the pleasures and difficulties of life and his decision to withdraw from civil service. The Eastern Jin dynasty in which he was born was characterized by nepotism, corrupt politics, civil disorder, and violence among rival clans. His own family, despite descent from the eminent general Tao Kan, had slipped into moderate poverty after his father's death when he was only eight.

Names as a Map of a Life

The sequence of names Tao Yuanming adopted across his lifetime reads like a personal manifesto. In his youth he coined the sobriquet 'Master of the Five Willows,' a self-referential device he employed in a surviving autobiographical essay. For a stretch of his career he identified as 'Yuanming.' But with the collapse of the Eastern Jin dynasty in 420 and the rise of the Liu Song, he switched to 'Qian'—a character meaning 'hiding'—to mark his final, irreversible withdrawal from the political arena and his commitment to the quiet country life. Centuries later, the Tang dynasty introduced an additional layer of complexity: because the founding emperor Li Yuan bore the same yuan character, a naming taboo forced scribes to substitute the synonym shen ('depths') for yuan, spawning variant renderings like Shenming and Quanming in later texts.

Literary Revolution and Enduring Legacy

Tao Yuanming's simple and direct style was somewhat at odds with the norms for literary writing in his time. From the Tang dynasty onward, he was closely associated with the practice of farming as a recluse. During the Northern Song dynasty, influential literati figures such as Su Shi declared him a paragon of authenticity and spontaneity in poetry, predicting that he would achieve lasting literary fame. But Tao's inclusion in the 6th-century literary anthology Wen Xuan implies he began to gain fame in his own era, at least in his birth area. Tao is now regarded as the foremost representative of Fields and Gardens poetry.

The Unstrung Guqin and Artistic Afterlife

Tao Yuanming is known for owning and appreciating an unstrung guqin, claiming that he did not need to bother with the sounds of the strings to value the instrument. This became a common literary reference, and also appears in later depictions of Tao such as his portrait by Chen Hongshou. Tao is also depicted in Jin Guliang's Wu Shuang Pu.