In one of his famous quotes, Confucius implied that he would stay afloat as a man of conscience even if those in power meant to keep him down.
Drunk or sober, Táo Yuānmíng understood Confucius more than he might care to admit. Blessed with the legacy of his great grandfather (Táo Kǎn), he proudly turned his back on the rotten officialdom and returned to his long-forgotten place of origin as a landowner-farmer.
Yuānmíng, however, was never a true hermit. As a matter of fact, he enjoyed socializing however defined. At the same time, he embraced nature whole-heartedly. His literary works concurred with that.
Not only was Yuānmíng close to nature, he was also close to where a major confluence of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism was taking place, which would in time end up as a powerful current of thought across China.
三径空寻五柳踪
篱前菊影几多重
无言独立南山下
不肯低头始见峰
外一首打油
雅蚁
世道难行只许爬
不如归隐老陶家
欣然禁足东篱外
赏罢诗文啃菊花
In one of his famous quotes, Confucius implied that he would stay afloat as a man of conscience even if those in power meant to keep him down.
Drunk or sober, Táo Yuānmíng understood Confucius more than he might care to admit. Blessed with the legacy of his great grandfather (Táo Kǎn), he proudly turned his back on the rotten officialdom and returned to his long-forgotten place of origin as a landowner-farmer.
Yuānmíng, however, was never a true hermit. As a matter of fact, he enjoyed socializing however defined. At the same time, he embraced nature whole-heartedly. His literary works concurred with that.
Not only was Yuānmíng close to nature, he was also close to where a major confluence of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism was taking place, which would in time end up as a powerful current of thought across China.
纫秋兰原创
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Resulted in a poem with a good line
不肯低頭始見峯。陶淵明實柔中有剛。