T’ao Ch’ien’s Use of Poetic Effects of Distance to Affirm His Daoist Principles
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published 05/06/2008
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SummaryAt first glance, the poetry of the reclusive scholar T’ao Ch’ien seems like a layman’s simple affirmation of Daoist life in the country. But even though T’ao Ch’ien feels he has chosen the right principles for himself, his poetry contains a definite tension: the weather threatens the crops, often he lacks bare necessities, his family is unhappy with his decision and he himself still longs for the old world. The essential Daoist text, the Tao Te Ching, with its many injunctions and advice on how to be a proper sage, promises that the Way will provide if only it is followed. T’ao Ch’ien’s material circumstances seem like an eyesore in that light, but throughout his poetry T’ao Ch’ien uses natural imagery, metaphors of drunkenness, and other literary techniques to illustrate how he is able to detach himself from worldly sorrows and cares and achieve an understanding of the Way.
Table of Contents
- T'ao Ch'ien sets up this tension almost immediately in the chronology of his poetic world.
- Crop failure is not the only trouble T'ao Ch'ien must face.
- T'ao Ch'ien has inserted many dissenting elements into his poetry, his own doubts and the doubts of others.
- Another way that T'ao Ch'ien creates distance from the cares of the world is through metaphors using drunkenness
- T'ao Ch'ien's almost philosophical love of wine recalls another of the joyful elements of Peach Blossom Spring
- T'ao Ch'ien does not try to justify one choice of life over the other solely through logic.
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