Character Classification. Poems Theory

This article researches Tao Yuanming's idea by discussing the classification of the characters cited in Tao Yuanming's poems.On the basis of Tao's works in-depth study,the thesis divides these figures in his poems into six categories: people committing their ideas to paper, people serving meritoriously by military renders, people persevering the morality, people living in seclusion shunning the world, people pacing back and forth in branch roads, figures in myths and legends. According to the materials in history books, the prototype features of all kinds of characters are shown. On this basis, from the perspective of reception aesthetics, the thesis includes Tao in the scope of readers and researches Tao's creative thinking and acceptance on these figures by the method of combining poetry and history. Tao shows his own fervent pursuit of the ideal "Three Immortality" by referring to these figures. However, due to the reasons of age and social status, the poet's ideal of "committing ideas to paper " and "meritorious service" became hopeless. So after a brief hesitation and uncertainty, he turned to the pursuit of "the saint" ideal, and firmly embarked on the road of seclusion. After retirement, the poet had a profound thought on life and death in the hands-on labor, and ultimately built his spiritual home through the characters in the poetry. Tao's specific interpretation of these figures shows the complexity and multi-facet of his thinking. By the comparison and confirmation of this conclusion with Tao's biography in "Book of Jin,""Book of Song", "History of Nan Dynasty" and other historical books, the article finds that Tao's idea is consistent with the records in history books, that is Tao's idea is diverse.The innovation of the thesis is that the angle reverses previous method which is from idea to figure or from poetry to idea.The angle of this article reveals Tao Yuanming's idea by the figures cited in his poems.