Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Origin" is very familiar to us, as long as it is a person who has undergone high school education, almost all of them can recite it fluently, which has become a common cultural memory of Chinese. The textbook gives us the interpretation that the article borrows the Wuling fisherman to discover Taohuayuan, shows a beautiful world corresponding to the dark reality through romantic brushwork, depicts the ideal social scene of Taohuayuan with a beautiful environment, no oppression, tranquility and prosperity, and simple folk customs, expresses the author's yearning and pursuit of a better life, and is dissatisfied with and criticized the turbulent and dark real life.
(Hunan Taoyuan County live performance "Peach Blossom Garden")
On the surface, it is true, Taohuayuan's life is so beautiful and peaceful, like a picturesque, but if you interpret it so simply, you ignore the author's deep meaning, Tao Yuanming under the beautiful coat of the surface, implies the cruel truth. "Peach Blossom Origin" is not a fairy tale, it is essentially a terrible fable.
"Peach Blossom Origin" is actually consistent with the performance method and ideological core of Ang Lee's film "The Fantasy Drift of Young Pi", that is, to use beauty to metaphorize darkness and peace to allude to cruelty. "The Fantasy Drift of the Young Pi" is ostensibly a story of a little boy overcoming the predicament in the shipwreck and gaining a new life, but in fact, it implies the cruel truth that people eat people in a desperate situation, in order to survive, thinking about the darkest and cruelest side of human nature; and "Peach Blossom Origin" is ostensibly to write about the fisherman's experience of mistakenly entering the ideal utopian world, but in fact, it implies: a family of people, escaping from war, hiding in the mountains, and finally being slaughtered and slaughtered, and what fishermen see is actually not a beautiful peach blossom source. It's a pile of graves.
(Ang Lee movie "The Fantasy Drift of Young Pi")
However, "Peach Blossom Origin" and "The Fantasy Drifting of the Young Pi" give us two choices, if you are willing to see beauty and reunion, then please believe the superficial story; and if you want to reflect on the pain brought by war to the world, reflect on the cruelty and darkness of human nature, then you must see another truth hidden behind the story.
It is also said that "Peach Blossom Origin" is extremely similar to the Japanese anime "Spirited Away". The fisherman mistakenly enters the peach blossom forest, the little girl mistakenly enters a tunnel; the fisherman sees a strange village hundreds of years ago, and the little girl sees a terrible town with all kinds of animals... However, they are essentially different, and "Spirited Away" is essentially a metaphor for the contest between countries, the control of the world by the Western hegemonic countries, and the embarrassing situation of Japan, which wants to be independent and self-reliant.
(Spirited Away)
Before dissecting the cruel truth implied in "Peach Blossom Origin", let's take a look at the background of this article.
The period in which Tao Yuanming lived was the history from the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty. The history of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties can be said to be the most chaotic and darkest period of the Central Plains civilization, and the "Wuhu Chaohua" occurred in this period. The Central Plains split into more than a dozen large and small regimes, and these small countries fought all day long, slaughtering the city and exterminating the ethnic groups, resulting in a tragic situation of sharp population decline, idyllic desolation, and white bones. In order to escape the chaos of the war, many clans went south to jiangnan to live, and the Sima family "crossed the south in the crown" during the war and went to the south to establish the Eastern Jin Dynasty. These regimes needed a large amount of money and grain taxes to support their conquests, so the taxes on conscription continued to increase. War, taxes, famine, the people are miserable, so many poor people in groups, flee into the deep mountains and old forests in the south, choose the closed, dangerous mountain forest depths, open up the field to live. Perhaps, these people who hid underground fought fiercely against the regime that found them, and finally they were all wiped out, and the fishermen discovered the world after their deaths.
The original text of "Peach Blossom Origin" is as follows:
In the Jin Dynasty, the Wuling people fished for their profession. Edge creek line, forget the distance of the road. Suddenly, the peach blossom forest, hundreds of steps between the shores, no miscellaneous trees, delicious herbs, colorful fall, fishermen are very different. Go back and forth, wanting to exhaust the forest. When the forest is exhausted, there will be a mountain, and the mountain will have a small mouth, as if there is light. Ditch the boat and enter through the mouth. The beginning is very narrow, and it is only through people. Repeat dozens of steps, suddenly enlightened. The land is flat, the houses are like houses, and there is a good field of Miike mulberry bamboo. Strange traffic, chickens and dogs smell each other. Among them, men and women are dressed like outsiders. Yellow hair hanging down and enjoying himself. When he saw the fisherman, he was horrified and asked where he had come from. Answered. Then they will return home and set up wine to kill chickens for food. The village heard of this person, and Xian came to inquire. Since Yun's ancestors avoided the chaos of Qin, he led his wife Yiren to this desperate situation, did not come back, and was separated from outsiders. Ask what world it is, but I don't know whether there is a Han, no matter Wei Jin. This person sighed one by one for what he had heard. The rest of the people went back to their homes and all drank and ate. Stop for a few days and resign. This middle man said: "Not enough for outsiders to be humane." ” When he is out, he gets his boat, and he leads to the road, and everywhere he wants to do it. And the county, Ji Taishou, said so. To be too conservative is to send people to follow them, to find what they want, to be lost, and not to find the way back. Nanyang Liu Ziji, a noble scholar, smelled it and gladly followed it. Unsuccessful, the search for the end of the disease, and then there is no one to ask.
(Taohuayuan)
From the article, we can find several clues and doubts hidden by the author:
Clue one: The fisherman is lost
"In the Jin Dynasty, the Wuling people fished for their profession. Edge creek line, forget the distance of the road. "Since fishermen make a living from fishing, they must have lived in the local area, and they should have lived for many years, maybe their ancestors have been fishermen for generations." So, he should be very familiar with the local environment, the fishing route does not know how many times to go, has long been familiar with the road, how can he get lost, so that "forget the distance of the road"?
Clue two: ward off evil peach forest
"Suddenly in the peach blossom forest, hundreds of steps between the shores, there are no miscellaneous trees in the middle, the herbs are delicious, and the fall is colorful." There are only peach trees on both sides of the creek, and there are no other trees, the flowers and grass are fresh, and the peach blossoms are falling. This is very strange, in the wild, it should be overgrown with trees, it cannot be only peach forests. It is said that peach wood has the function of driving away ghosts and warding off evil spirits, so it is often used as a barrier between the yin and yang worlds; the peach blossom falls in April, that is, around the Qingming Festival, and the falling of the Ying May allude to the paper money that flies when sweeping the tomb.
Clue three: The entrance is like a cemetery
"When the forest is exhausted, there will be a mountain, and the mountain will have a small mouth, as if there is light." Ditch the boat and enter through the mouth. The beginning is very narrow, and it is only through people. Repeat dozens of steps, suddenly enlightened. "At the end of the water source, the peach forest is gone, and a mountain appears in front of it, and there is a hole at the foot of the mountain, and the entrance of the cave is faintly illuminated. The fisherman entered through the mouth of the cave, which was narrow enough for only one person to pass, and after walking ten or so steps, he suddenly opened up and an open village appeared in front of him. The description of this entrance is very similar to the cemetery, or to the experience of a person on the verge of death.
(Entrance to the Tomb of the King of Jing)
Clue Four: Strange as a tomb path
"The house is like... Strange traffic, chickens and dogs smell each other. "When the fisherman arrived at Taohuayuan, he found that the village was neat and orderly, and the village's longitudinal paths were connected to every door." The word "Que Mo" also often referred to the path leading to the tomb in ancient times. The neatly organized houses appear to be neat rows of tombs.
Clue five: Clothing does not match the time
The phrase "Men and women dress as outsiders" contradicts the phrase "avoiding chaos in Qin, leading his wife yi people to this desperate situation, not coming back, and then separating from outsiders". These people claimed to have fled here during the Qin Dynasty, and never went out again, isolated from the outside world, but they dressed like the people outside. From the Qin Dynasty to the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a gap of more than 600 years in between, and the clothing difference was very large. These people do not communicate with the outside world, do not know that there are Han Dynasty and Wei Jin, even if the clothes are woven by themselves, it is impossible to be exactly the same as the people of the world today. Therefore, the reasonable explanation is that what these people wear is actually burned to them by people outside.
Clue Six: Every house has wine and meat like sacrifices
"Then he will return home, and set up wine to kill chickens for food... The rest of the people went back to their homes and all drank and ate. "In the era of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, natural disasters and man-made disasters, soldiers and horses were in chaos, hunger was everywhere, and the people were able to eat enough. But in the peach blossom garden, there is wine and meat, where do these things come from? The reasonable explanation is that these things are precious sacrifices offered to them by outsiders.
Clue Seven: Hidden for hundreds of years without knowing
"Since Yun's ancestors avoided the chaos of Qin, he led his wife Yiren to this desperate situation, did not come back, and was separated from outsiders. Ask what world it is, but I don't know whether there is a Han, no matter Wei Jin. The villagers of Taohuayuan have come to this place since the Qin Dynasty, and this is the last year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, 600 years apart in between, which has to go through several generations of ancestors, but they are still the people who came, they are all the same as when they came, and they have no idea what is happening outside, not even the dynasty they are in now. So, the question comes, how can they live so long? Since fishermen can come in and out, why don't they go out and have a look? It is impossible to be isolated from the world for hundreds of years, and not to communicate with the outside world at all. The only plausible explanation is that they are dead and that being alive is just an illusion of theirs.
Clue Eight: Never find your way to come again
"The chinese man said: 'Not enough for outsiders to be humane.'" ...... Then he held on to the road, and everywhere he wanted to do it. And the county, Ji Taishou, said so. To be too conservative is to send people to follow them, to find what they want, to be lost, and not to find the way back. "When the fisherman went back, the villagers told them not to tell outsiders, but the fisherman did not pay attention to honesty, and when he went back, he made a mark along the way, and then reported what he saw to Taishou, who hurriedly sent people to follow the fisherman to find it, but the road to Taohuayuan could not be found. It shows that those undead saw that the fisherman reneged on his word, afraid of being disturbed by outsiders, so he disappeared.
Clue Nine: The Death of Liu Ziji
"Nanyang Liu Ziji, a noble scholar, smelled it and gladly followed it." Unsuccessful, the search for the end of the disease, and then there is no one to ask. "Liu Ziji is a generation of celebrities, after hearing about this incident, he gladly went to look for it, and as a result, he fell ill and died in the middle. Why is it that the beautiful paradise, those who come to find it, die? Perhaps this was a warning from the undead to outsiders, or perhaps Liu Ziji died of a plague in the cemetery. In short, it is possible to find the peach blossom source after death.
(Overgrown mounds)
Then, since The Peach Blossom Garden is not actually a paradise on earth, but a world after death. So when did the people who lived in the peach blossom garden die? There are two interpretations:
Explanation one, died in the Qin Dynasty
During the war in the Qin Dynasty, a group of ordinary people hid in the mountains and forests with their families, but they were still found, and their fate was to be plundered, and then killed all the people, men, women and children. As for who did it, it is difficult to say.
The people of the whole village lived happily together, they thought they were all alive, but in fact, they had already died tragically in the qin dynasty war. As a result, their time has been fixed in the Qin Dynasty. The fisherman strayed into their undead world and told them about the Jin Dynasty, but they were completely unaware of it, and they may realize that they were dead at this time. What is even more terrifying is that the hermit Liu Ziji went to look for the peach blossom source, and as a result, he suddenly fell ill and died, obviously this earth-shattering secret was not allowed to be known to outsiders, he could only be silenced, and no one cared about this matter.
The fishermen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty did not enter the peach blossom garden by mistake, but a pile of graves. These people who fled from the north during the Qin Dynasty, along with qin's annihilation of the Six Kingdoms, eventually died in a foreign land. People who have died in vain will have strong resentments, and their resentment is to hope for a quiet place like Peach Blossom Garden, so that they can go into hiding and live a peaceful life.
Perhaps, that peach blossom garden is the picture that the fisherman saw in his dying. It is likely that the fishing boat hit the reef and was shipwrecked, and the fisherman almost died in this place where horrific tragedies once took place. "The mountain has a small mouth, as if there is light", this is the picture you will see before dying, not far away, there is a bright light guiding him, it is likely that the fisherman is also moving towards death. Only then can he see the embodiment of a beautiful life scene formed by these grievances. People who die think they are still alive, which is expressed in many movies, such as "Spirit Flight" and "Island Horror" and so on.
The dead refugees in Taohuayuan still think they are alive, so they cannot communicate with the normal world. It's not that they don't want to go to the outside world to see, but the yin and yang are separated, and they really can't go out. Entertaining fishermen with wine and meat, it was all an illusion. When they talked to the fisherman, they realized they were dead. The fisherman may have recovered from his near-death life to bid farewell to the world of the undead, and when the fisherman was leaving, the undead warned him that "it is not enough for outsiders." ”
Explanation two, died in the current Eastern Jin Dynasty
The Eastern Jin Dynasty founded a state in the south of the jiangsu, while the north at this time was divided, and the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Xianbei, Qiang, and other ethnic minorities and the Han nationality fought and fought, and they all established the country and became kings, and there were constantly the establishment and destruction of the country. Therefore, the people of the Central Plains formed groups and chose to take refuge in the south and fled into the deep mountains and forests in the south to establish their homes, and the villages that developed relatively largely would elect leaders and select strong men to form private armed forces, and the final fate of these villages was either recruited by the imperial court, destroyed by armed forces, or plundered by bandits.
Moreover, when the Eastern Jin Dynasty went to the south to establish political power, it actually had no real power, no army, no money, no food, and no talent. As a result, the emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty could only rely on the Shi Clan Mendi. And these nobles, too, often developed their own strength and were unwilling to help the Eastern Jin dynasty too much. The emperor did not receive money, food and manpower from the nobles, so he increased taxes on the conscription solicited by the tenants. According to historical records, at that time, many poor people were overwhelmed, fled into the "barbarians", hid in the mountains and forests, and became mountain people.
And the fisherman, driving the boat "edge of the creek", the fisherman fishing does not go to the wide water, why go up the stream, to the deep mountains and old forests? Most likely, the fisherman noticed traces of fleeing refugees gathered here, and he went to look for them in order to receive a reward from the imperial court. At that time, for fugitives, if they were discovered, the imperial court would offer a reward.
After the fisherman discovered the gathering of the refugees, the villagers took turns inviting him to the house for dinner, in fact, in order to find out the truth, to see if the fisherman was a spy sent by the government. After a few days, he found that there was no movement, so the villagers released him and warned the fisherman before leaving: "Don't tell outsiders about this!" As soon as the fisherman left, he immediately made a crooked idea, he made a mark all the way, and quickly reported the matter to Taishou. Taishou immediately sent people to look for it, the real situation is not what the article says they are lost, it is likely that the fisherman led the soldiers back to Taohuayuan, and looted Taohuayuan, Taohuayuan villagers resisted, and the end was that the whole village was slaughtered. The myth of getting lost, the beautiful peach blossom paradise is just to hide people's eyes. In the end, Nanyang Liu Ziji actually found the peach blossom source, but what he saw was not a beautiful paradise on earth, but a human tragedy full of bones. Liu Ziji was overly frightened and soon fell ill and died. Since then, the place has been buried, and no one has ever asked about Taohuayuan again.
(Shandong Liutai Taohuayuan Scenic Area)
In fact, no matter when the victims in Taohuayuan died, the essence of Tao Yuanming's writing of "Taohuayuan" is not to create an ideal and beautiful paradise on earth, but to allude to the suffering, darkness, and cruel social reality: a large number of people hid underground to escape war, famine and taxation, but they were eventually wiped out and died tragically. The people of war, forgotten and trampled, no one knows who they are, their stories are not cared about, and only through hallucinatory fables to be vaguely informed to future generations.