How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

P e n ta s y l l a biC Sh i P oe t ry : l anD s C a P e anD Fa rm s t e aD P oe m s 129

In addition to a description of rural life, this poem contains two other common
features of Tao’s farmstead poetry: a meditation on his way of life and a reaffirma-
tion of his choice of withdrawal. The word li (translated as “way of life,” it literally
means “principle”) in line 9 arguably refers to an insight into the way of rustic
reclusion: finding delight in the simple yet rewarding aspects of rural life, a view
that seems to be supported by others who share his ideals. This “principle” may
also refer to an understanding of agriculture, as suggested by the last couplet of
the poem: farming is not a lesser endeavor (which counters the attitude generally
held by the Confucian elite), since material sustenance is fundamental to life, and
honest labor will surely yield tangible rewards. The exhortation to farm in the last
line translates to a reaffirmation of the poet’s choice of lifestyle.
Farmstead poetry, as developed by Tao and adapted by later writers, typically
includes the following features: depictions of idyllic, rural scenes; a focus on the
leisure and contentment of rustic life; the use of symbolic natural images; simple
and direct expressions; as well as meditations on reclusion, the significance of na-
ture’s workings, and their correspondence with the human realm. This genre lan-
guished for centuries after Tao’s death, attracting little interest from Six Dynasties
poets; but during the Tang, many writers found the farmstead topos to be a fruit-
ful medium for creating an idealized realm in which they could seek solace from
the constraints of court life and from disappointments in public service. Their
portrayals of farmstead life were generally trimmed of practical matters of self-
sustenance and of the sense of unease and melancholy sometimes found in Tao’s
works. Selections of Tao’s life and works became a rich source of poetic material
for new examples of farmstead poems. Writing farmstead poetry became a vogue
with High Tang poets, and the development of the genre reached its apex in their
works.

t h e l a nD s C a P e P o e t r y oF x i e l i n g y u n

Xie Lingyun, a scion of an illustrious aristocratic clan of the Six Dynasties, led
a life of privilege and leisure. His official biography paints him as an outlandish
and temperamental character. Unable to realize his political ambition and finding
himself in exile from court in his prime, Xie turned toward an aesthetic engage-
ment with nature and a spiritual quest for enlightenment. Xie has long been ac-
knowledged as the originary model for Chinese landscape poetry. While he was
by no means the first poet to use images of mountains and waters or to employ
nature as a way to express his ideas and sentiments, he unequivocally established
“mountains and waters” as a poetic subject in its own right. Unlike the sparse lines
of natural imagery found in xuanyan shi (abstruse poetry), philosophical verse
rooted in Daoist thought that was in vogue during the fourth century, extensive
exposition of the natural scene in Xie’s works marks the birth of landscape poetry
as a genre. In contrast to philosophical poetry, in which natural imagery serves
predominantly as metaphors for ideas or the literal background for the figures
or events in the poem, Xie’s landscape poetry contains elaborate descriptions of
nature in which mountains and waters become objects of the aesthetic gaze. To