29 Facts About Tao Yuanming

Tao Yuanming, known as Tao Qian, courtesy name Yuanliang, was a Chinese poet and politician.

Tao Yuanming was one of the best-known poets who lived during the Six Dynasties period.

Tao Yuanming spent much of his life in reclusion, living in the countryside, farming, reading, drinking wine, receiving the occasional guest, and writing poems in which he reflected on the pleasures and difficulties of life and his decision to withdraw from civil service.

Tao Yuanming is regarded as the foremost representative of Fields and Gardens poetry.

Tao Yuanming found inspiration in the beauty and serenity of the natural world.

Tao Yuanming is depicted in Jin Guliang's Wu Shuang Pu.

Tao Yuanming's great-grandfather was the eminent Jin dynasty general and governor Tao Kan.

Tao Yuanming's father died when he was eight years old.

Tao Yuanming is considered a person of the Eastern Jin dynasty who outlived it.

Tao Yuanming was born during the Eastern Jin dynasty, in Chaisang, which is a district of the city of Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province.

Tao Yuanming is generally believed to have been born in the year 365 CE in Chaisang, an area of great natural beauty.

Many events occurred during Tao Yuanming's lifetime, including two revolts leading to the usurpation of the throne, and, in his old age, the overthrow of Eastern Jin.

Tao Yuanming's birthplace was near Mountain Lu, which became a center of Buddhism and a source of origin for Pure Land Buddhism.

Tao Yuanming did more than ten years of government service, personally involved with the sordid political scene of the times, which he did in five stints.

Tao Yuanming served in both civil and military capacities, making several trips down the Yangzi to the capital Jiankang, then a thriving metropolis and the center of power during the Six Dynasties.

Tao Yuanming's father was emperor Xiaowu, who named him crown prince in 387 despite his extreme developmental disabilities.

Nevertheless, after around a decade of service, Tao Yuanming left the government and returned to his home region.

Tao Yuanming did this in part due to family poverty, and to support his aged parents.

Again according to Lu, Tao Yuanming was the official to go to the imperial capital, Jiankang, and officially submit this proposal to the imperial government.

When he was about forty, Tao Yuanming worked for general Liu Jingxuan, who resigned about a year later, and Tao Yuanming along with him.

Each stint seems to have lasted no more than a few years, and each time Tao Yuanming seems to have resigned and returned home.

Certainly Tao Yuanming's salary as Penze County Magistrate was far higher than five pecks, so this was a symbolic expression.

Tao Yuanming's works show a certain spiritual side to them.

Tao Yuanming mastered not only the external words, doctrines, and rituals, but had a thorough internal understanding and acceptance of the best and most valuable parts of those schools of thought.

Tao Yuanming has another biography in the History of the South.

Later, his poetry and the particular motifs which Tao Yuanming exemplified would prove to importantly influence the innovations of Beat poetry and the 1960s poetry of the United States and Europe.

Poem number five of Tao Yuanming's "Drinking Wine" series is translated by Arthur Waley:.

Tao Yuanming is the father of recluse poetry past and present.

Tao Yuanming has inspired not only generations of poets, but painters and other artists.