Surname 1 Student’s name Professor’s name Course details Date The Work of Tao Ch’ien ‘You had better go where Fate leads’ is a quote from the poem “Substance, Shadow, and Spirit” by Tao Ch’ien. Tao was also known as Tao Yuanming and Tao Qian, who is a renowned poet from the Liu Song and Jin dynasties. His various works, including the prose Peach Blossom Spring, is used in writing this paper. This paper discusses Tao’s philosophy of life and society, his poetry and prose and his literary writing strategy. Tao Ch’ien had his philosophy for life, which the spirit represented and was that the course of nature should be followed by man (Olaniyi 67). Tao served as a court magistrate, where he later resigned. Tao returned home to become a farmer, where he wrote two-thirds of his poems. His poetry, Substance Shadow Spirit, where he talks about life and death and letting the spirit and soul take the course of nature to resolve its problems; hence his philosophy on making nature take its course. Tao was dissatisfied with the state's affair, where he withdrew and set his mind on poetry. He used his poetry to talk about the ills of his society and adopted cultural factors in speech. Tao’s work “Peach Blossom Spring” is a simple description of animal imagery use, agricultural and pastoral as an ideal society for Tao. Tao talked of his perfect society as unattainable for men who had lost their innocence. The community was a reality to him as a state of mind that was not found in the outside world. Tao Ch’ien is referred to as a great landscape poet and the first in China where the opposition is seen between nature’s simplicity and purity, in his poetry. Tao was however not appreciated in his time as the predominant poetry in his time was artificial and flowery like in his poem Oh, Such a Shame of Life in the Countryside. His poetry was then greatly treasured for its simplicity. Tao’s poetry was unadorned and simple, with realistic descriptions and imagery. Tao Qian’s prose “Peach Blossom Spring” is an intriguing short and influential prose. It is a depiction of land that is hidden from the outside world. It is about a fisherman who finds a place that is out of time and later is unable to find the location and can only explain the area to people. The prose is a very important story that is well known to the Chinese. Tao was a pastoral poet. Tao used symbolism like in his dynasty’s stories and the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Groove, where the theme “returning to the home country” is depicted. Tao was also referred to as a poet of the fields as he used his life of farming and drinking wine to influence his audience to leave the official life and take the country life. Hence Tao used symbolism in his poetry to pass various themes to his audience. Tao Ch’ien was a great poet and whose work is renowned to date. Tao had the philosophy for life of letting nature take its course. He viewed a simple life of agriculture and pastoral experience as an ideal society for ...

1. Surname 1
Student’s name
Professor’s name
Course details
Date
The Work of Tao Ch’ien
‘You had better go where Fate leads’ is a quote from the poem
“Substance, Shadow, and Spirit” by Tao Ch’ien. Tao was also
known as Tao Yuanming and Tao Qian, who is a renowned poet
from the Liu Song and Jin dynasties. His various works,
including the prose Peach Blossom Spring, is used in writing
this paper. This paper discusses Tao’s philosophy of life and
society, his poetry and prose and his literary writing strategy.
Tao Ch’ien had his philosophy for life, which the spirit
represented and was that the course of nature should be
followed by man (Olaniyi 67). Tao served as a court magistrate,
where he later resigned. Tao returned home to become a farmer,
where he wrote two-thirds of his poems. His poetry, Substance
Shadow Spirit, where he talks about life and death and letting
the spirit and soul take the course of nature to resolve its
problems; hence his philosophy on making nature take its
course.
Tao was dissatisfied with the state's affair, where he withdrew
and set his mind on poetry. He used his poetry to talk about the
ills of his society and adopted cultural factors in speech. Tao’s
work “Peach Blossom Spring” is a simple description of animal
imagery use, agricultural and pastoral as an ideal society for
Tao. Tao talked of his perfect society as unattainable for men
who had lost their innocence. The community was a reality to
him as a state of mind that was not found in the outside world.
Tao Ch’ien is referred to as a great landscape poet and the first
in China where the opposition is seen between nature’s
simplicity and purity, in his poetry. Tao was however not
appreciated in his time as the predominant poetry in his time

2. was artificial and flowery like in his poem Oh, Such a Shame of
Life in the Countryside. His poetry was then greatly treasured
for its simplicity. Tao’s poetry was unadorned and simple, with
realistic descriptions and imagery.
Tao Qian’s prose “Peach Blossom Spring” is an intriguing short
and influential prose. It is a depiction of land that is hidden
from the outside world. It is about a fisherman who finds a
place that is out of time and later is unable to find the location
and can only explain the area to people. The prose is a very
important story that is well known to the Chinese.
Tao was a pastoral poet. Tao used symbolism like in his
dynasty’s stories and the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Groove,
where the theme “returning to the home country” is depicted.
Tao was also referred to as a poet of the fields as he used his
life of farming and drinking wine to influence his audience to
leave the official life and take the country life. Hence Tao used
symbolism in his poetry to pass various themes to his audience.
Tao Ch’ien was a great poet and whose work is renowned to
date. Tao had the philosophy for life of letting nature take its
course. He viewed a simple life of agriculture and pastoral
experience as an ideal society for Tao. His poetry is seen to be
realistic, simple and lacked adornment. His works, including his
prose “Peach Blossom Spring”, are powerful stories, and he
uses symbolism to pass various themes to his audience. The
paper shows the many works of Tao and reveals how his work
was revolutionary.
Work Cited
Olaniyi, BanwoAdetoro. "An Analysis To The Poems And Life
Of Tao Yuan-Ming (365-427)". International Journal Of Science
And Research, vol 3, no. 5, 2014, pp. 64-70., Accessed 5 Mar
2020.