Tao Yuanming Cultural Image Research

This thesis includes five sections: 1. the constructive basis forTao' cultural image;2, the constructive process of Tao's image; 3. theconstructive aspects of Tao' s image;4, the constructive power;5, thecultural remains left by Tao.The first section discusses the constructive basis for Tao's image,focusing on Tao's basic reality and self-apotheosis. His basic realityis approached from three perspectives: his countenance, his residence andhis sociality. Tao's images seen from painting works have been polishedand beautified by Chinese cultural psychology and literary ideal. Forexample, the weird combination of Tao's image and rose blossoms indicatesthat another literature factors influenced Tao's image and caused thedistortion of his stable image. Tao's residence is very plain and naturalHis love-filled tone, his poetic description and the constant usage ofdirection words when depicting an environment suggest that Tao is aself-conscious poet, and wulu吾庐(my house) is a self-selected symbolafter he did deep thinking on the topic "self and life". The way headdressed his residence indicates the relationship between Chinesejiayuan,家园(home and field) and agricultural literature and nature.Tao's sociality is approached from his poems which he exchanged withfriends. The percentage of his exchanging poems in his total works, thewriting date, the ratio of presenting poems to answering poems, and theway he addressed his friends indicate that rao was still viewed as a memberof the literary men group even after he retreated. At the same time, thoughrao did not isolate himself from social meetings, he was in a ratherpassive situation: he tried to keep a distance from people to whom heanswered a poem by addressing their formal official titles and emphasizingobscurely his hermit identity, rao used exchanging poems as a way tcself-construct his self-image, look for ziyin,知音(people whcunderstand) and seek comprehension from others. Tao apotheosized himselfin his poetry. For example, he demonstrated a perfect self-image in wuliuxiansheng zhuan,五柳先生传(the Biography of a Master with Five Willows)and nigu jiushou,拟古九首(the Nine Poems in Ancient Style). Also, hepraised the thoughts of ancient people and expressed the desire to be friends with ancient sages in order to emphasize his self-image.In the second section I made a diachronic depiction of the processof the development for Tao's image, focusing on how a variety of Tao'slife experiences has been constantly enlarged and eventually settled whenconstructing his image. The process of Tao's rising popularity is alsothe process of his changing cultural image. Tao's image followed adevelopment as below: virtuous man, famed scholar and literary man, sageand the most famous poet, the noble commoner, and the represent of Chineseliterature. The apotheosis and canonizing of Tao started from the Songdynasty. The improvement of his image and exploration of his common sideswent together, which suggested the self-consciousness of the Songscholars when they idolized Tao.The third section deals with the constructive aspects of Tao'simage, discussing his personality and identity, his multiple layers ofthoughts and his attitude towards life. The basic element of Tao's imageis self-control, a typical personality of Chinese people. His multipleidentities and thoughts make him a subject open to be explored, and healso represented Chinese literature in many respects. His attitudetowards life, which was cultivated from struggling with chronic illnessand loss of family members, make it possible for him to breathe heavenlyair in the ordinary world. His outlook is a perfect combination ofsuperorganic and realistic power, which can be observed from his fondnessof these two opposite words as xin,新(new) and xi,夕(dusk). Multiplemeanings, tolerance and positive spirit embodied in his personality,identity, thoughts, and his life attitude qualified him to be a literalicon image.The fourth section discusses the constructive power to build upTao's cultural image by analyzing such questions as: the peculiarity ofChinese worshiping an idol; reader's reception for certain literaryworks; related debates and the views from oversea. The subjects of Chineseidols were switched from gods and ghosts to the cultural heroes in theordinary world in the Six Dynasties through exploring the tomb paintingsfrom Warring Kingdoms, the Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties. Tao has beenestablished as another hero after Ji Kang. Readership is not an ignorable power in relate to the establishment of the appearance and canonizationof an icon. Different perspectives from readers at different levelsdecided how they impacted the appearance of Tao's image. Arguments, suchas "Debates of Quiet and Holy" and "Loyalty and Anger", suggestdifferent opinions on how to evaluate Tao's image. The former debatecaused the revolution of studies on Tao's image; it brought up questionson the flatness and highness dimension of Tao's image and pushed the deepexploration on Tao's whole image and his common sides. Questioning onTao's "Loyalty and Anger" make the aspect of his image as a "virtuousofficial and sage" unstable, while the persisting proponents for thisaspect from the ancient time to today suggest that political aspectsalways play a major role in Tao's image.The fifth section is about the remains Tao left in Chinese literarytradition: chrysanthemum, wine, peach blossom spring, boats and fishermenthe leisure posture of lying beside the north window. All of those elementsare Tao's literary legacies for later generations generated from hismultiple images as an elegant gentleman with poetry and wine; thealcohol-addicted with deep sorrows and day dreamer in a disorder timeperiod. Chrysanthemum is Tao's identity card. A drunk poet is one sideof his elegant person, and wine is associated with elegant, play boy, deepsorrows and self-hidden and extreme pursuit of the philosophy. Comparedto Li Bai and ru Fu, Tao has a good appetite for wine. Instead of carefullychoosing the type of wine, time, place and methods to drink, rao drinksspontaneously but gets true pleasure from his drinking, rao took the totalcredit to the appearance of images of boats and ships in Chinese tradition,which is benefited from his actual experiences of living in the Long riverregion. His explanation of boat images in their philosophical and poeticaspects ("the empty boat" belongs to the philosophy, but "the moorboat" in the poetic aspect has not ever been touched by scholars)suggested his deep understandings of this kind of images. Lying highlyin the north window is a leisure posture and has great influence in Chinesewriters' private life. And, the dimension "north" and the physicalnature of window endowed it with a special literary meaning.