Tao Yuanming In Perspective Of Poets Of Jin Dynasty And Poetics

Tao Yuanming (365?-427), another name Qian, courtesy name Yuan liang, literary name Mr. Wuliu, was born in Xunyang Chaisang(now Jiujiang of Jiangxi Province).He lived an ordinary person but died an famous one. His gracious personality, living contentedly as a poor scholar and simple but profound poetry won him admiration from the following generations of scholars. He had been considered to set a good example in personality and poetry since North Song Dynasty.In the century Parnassus of Jin Dynasty, Tao wrote with unique methods and depicted vividly his different personal experiences, which made him a leading scholar ridding the evil customs and advocating establishing a good literary environment.Firstly, the main trend of literary circle in early Jin Dynasty was scholars of Song Dynasty tried to integrate with Jin Dynasty. The scholars of Song Dynasty brought literature tradition of North Song Dynasty to Jin Dynasty, among them, Tao made debut in the Jin Dynasty poetry circle. Cai Songnian, who viewed that Tao and his contemporary scholars of Weijin Dynasty were representing the pervaded social custom of Weijin Dynasty, was the representative of those who showed a positive attitude toward Tao's literary characteristic.Secondly, Jin Dynasty reached its flourishing period when Shizong and Zhangzong came into power. A group of indigenous poets of which Cai Gui was the representative made debut in the literary circle, whose works depicting the rough and brave men displayed a different characteristic of Jin Dynasty...