Tao Qian

Paper Summary:

This paper explores Tao Qian's life in the country upon retiring from official life after a career of ten years. The paper shows how he exalts an everyday village mystic's life separate from sages of the mountain and the corruption he had known as a bureaucrat. However, the reader sees that he has not just thrown over the urban in favour of the rural.

From the Paper:

"Tao Yuan-Ming and a Poetic Rural Life. Introduction Tao Yuan-ming or Tao Qian (365-427) was born into a family of the minor gentry. He held a number of civil service posts before leaving educated circles to return to the countryside. He was born in Juijiang, Jiangxi Province, and like so many other Chinese artists, his once notable family that had fallen into poverty. As a young man, he wished to remain in the country but needed to support his parents. He served in a number of minor official posts, and a short period of time as a country magistrate, he retired, having had enough of the infighting of the Jin court and resigned."

More papers on Tao Qian :

• Analytical Essay # 131116 : "Tao Qian's "Returning to Dwell in Gardens and Fields I"
• Poem Review # 101062 : "Returning to Dwell in Gardens and Fields I"
• Comparison Essay # 51122 : "Tao Te Ching, Buddhism, and Hinduism"

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