Tao Yuanming's ancestors have always had famous generals who galloped on the battlefield, according to the "Tao's Distant Ancestor Lineage Table", his distant ancestor was Tao She, a famous general of the Western Han Dynasty, who was once awarded the title of Marquis of Kaifeng by Han Gaozu, eating 2,000 households, and what is valuable is that he is both literate and martial arts, and has written 52 chapters of "Using Military Policies" to pass down the world.
Later generations of Miao, to Tao Tong Tao Dan, are all Wu Zhi YangWu generals of the Three Kingdoms, Tao Dan's second son Tao Kan is the mainstay of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, some people commented that he was "a machine god like Wei Wu, loyal and industrious like Kong Ming", which means that he has both Cao Cao's divine determination and the wisdom of knowing people, and Zhuge Liang's bowing and loyalty to the country, so some descendants call him the first general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Wenwu all-round, which is not an exaggeration. More than a hundred years after Tao Kan's death, his great-grandson Tao Yuanming was born, and at that time the family road had already declined, which is not mentioned later.
According to the "Book of Jin, Book 36, Volume 66", although Tao Kan's ancestors had also been xuanhe, but the dynasties changed, things were not human, plus his father died when he was young, there was no shade to lie down, in order to survive, he could only go to the county to be a small official.
Interestingly, when Tao Kan started in the official field, he was a post inspector.
First of all, let's talk about this interesting postmaster, which is the abbreviation of the postmaster at that time, the governor of the post, Cao Tuan, is not a big official, but can fox fake tiger power, because he is an important subordinate official of the county sheriff, can represent the Taishou inspector county and township. This can be taken literally, and he patrols and supervises everyone like a postman. In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the unlucky guy who coveted bribes and was hanged by Zhang Fei on a willow tree and beaten is a famous inspector. In fact, the person who really took the shot in the history books was Liu Bei, who was much more ruthless than Zhang Fei, and almost gave the overseer to Zai.
When Tao Yuanming was 41 years old, he gritted his teeth and went out for the last time, becoming a seven-pin sesame official Peng Zeling, and because there was a inspector in the county who inspected and supervised the work, his subordinates reminded him that he had to dress up neatly to greet him. Tao Yuanming was disgusted when he heard it, he did not want to bend his back to such a small person for five buckets of rice, simply hung up his crown and resigned, and lived a free and poor pastoral life.
Tao Yuanming could resign his official position in a dashing manner, but his great-grandfather Tao Kan had worked hard to become a Qipin official.
On that day, Xiaolian Fan Kui of Poyang County passed by Tao Kan's house, but the poor Tao family could not entertain guests. Tao Kan's old mother resolutely cut off her long hair and sold it in exchange for wine and vegetables, and only then did the guests and hosts have a drink. When bidding farewell, Tao Kan sent Fan Kui a hundred miles away. Fan Kui asked, "Have you thought about going to the county to find a position?" Tao Kan honestly replied: "I thought about it, but I was only suffering from no one to recommend me." Therefore, Fan Kui made a special trip to see Lujiang Taishou Zhang Kui and strongly recommended Tao Kan. Zhang Kunai summoned Tao Kan to go, and when he saw it, he also thought that Tao Kan was a virtuous and square person, so he ordered him to be a postmaster and concurrently served as the commander of Zongyang County.
Tao Kan gradually emerged from then on, and later he was recommended by Zhang Kui as a filial piety. Of course, this filial piety of his can stand the test, Tao Kan's mother is extremely filial, and her mother has also taught well, and has spread beautiful talk.
After Tao Kan entered the capital, he was favored by the important ministers Zhang Hua and Sun Xiu at that time, and also received the weight of Gu Rong, a famous scholar in Jiangnan, but he did not seem to be a material for being a peace official, and during his tenure in Wugang County, because of his disagreement with Taishou Lü Yue, he simply abandoned the official and returned home.
The Rebellion of the Eight Kings provided Tao Kan with the opportunity to join the army.
In the second year of Tai'an (303), Tao Kanyan was already forty-five years old, when Zhang Chang of Yiyang gathered a crowd in Jiangxia to rebel, and between the tenth month, it grew to tens of thousands of people, and most of the prefectures of Jing, Jiang, and Yang were controlled by Zhang Chang.
The imperial court appointed Liu Hong as a lieutenant of the Southern Barbarians and jingzhou to suppress it. Liu Hong can be called Tao Kan's Bole, and immediately after he took office, he invited Tao Kan and appointed him as the commander of the Southern Manchu Colonel, leading the capital protection, and serving as a vanguard officer to lead the army to Xiangyang.
Tao Kan showed outstanding military ability in this battle, repeatedly defeating Zhang Chang and killing tens of thousands of people. So Zhang Chang fled, his men surrendered, and Jingzhou was pacified. Tao Kan was awarded the title of Marquis of Dongxiang for his military merits, and had a thousand households.
Just out of the fledgling, the flag was victorious, and Tao Kan could not be collected. Subsequently, he was appointed by the imperial court as the general of Jiangxia Taishou and Yingyang to suppress the rebellion of Shi Chenmin in Yangzhou. After he was promoted to the post of general of Long Jun and Taishou of Wuchang, he quickly crushed the Du Han rebel army that occupied the jing and Xiang prefectures in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Tao Kan's army can win battles, in addition to his strict management of the army and his proficiency in Tao Strategy, it also has a great relationship with his selflessness. When the army was victorious, he ordered all the rewards to be given to the soldiers, but he was an empty-handed treasurer with no selfish wealth.
When the rebellion of Su Jun was quelled, Tao Kan was an ally of the Qin King's army. For his merits, he was promoted to the rank of Shizhong (侍中) and Taiwei (太尉), and was given the title of Military Governor of Jiaozhou, Guangzhou, and Ningzhou, and was knighted as the Duke of Changsha County, with 3,000 households. At this point, at the age of seventy, he reached the peak of his life and became a pillar of the imperial court.
However, the pinnacle of his military career came at the age of seventy-one.
At that time, the general Guo Mo killed Liu Yin of Jiangzhou without authorization, and Wang Dao, believing that Guo Moxiao was brave and difficult to control, appointed him to take over Liu Yin's History of Jiangzhou. Tao Kan believed that this matter must not be condoned, and resolutely decided to send troops to requisition.
Tao Kan arrived in Jiangzhou with his troops, and the two armies engaged, guo Mo was not an opponent, so he entered the city and prepared to hold on. He had an ulterior motive to pile up rice bags into a fortress to show that his soldiers were well fed.
Tao Kan did not think so, and built a tushan to oppose him. In March of the following year, various armies of the imperial court arrived one after another.
Just as Tao Kan was preparing to attack, Guo Mo's nest suddenly exploded, and the general Zonghou launched a surprise attack, capturing Guo Mo's father and son in one fell swoop, and binding them out of the city to surrender.
Tao Kanbing took the invincible Guo Mo without a bloody blade, and ordered him to be beheaded in front of the military gate, and the first rank was passed to Jiankang.
When the news of Guo Mo's beheading by Tao Kan reached Later Zhao, Shi Le could not sit still. At that time, he had fought with Guo Mo many times, and was beaten by Guo Mo so badly that it was difficult to overwhelm, and now he heard that Tao Kan took Guo Mo's first rank like a probe to take things, and he could not disrespect the gods.
He had always worried in his heart that something had offended Tao Kan. At that time, Su Jun's subordinate Feng Tie once killed Tao Kan's son Tao Zhan and defected to Later Zhao, and he also made Feng Tie a border general.
At this time, Tao Kan wrote a letter lightly about the battle with Guo Mo, and Shi Le knew where the weight was, and simply killed Feng Tie to alleviate the guilt.
This small thing alone can also show tao kan's prestige at that time. He sat in Jingzhou, and Hou Zhao did not dare to commit a frivolous offense.
Therefore, calling Tao Kan the first general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty is not a lie. During the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang, Tao Kan became one of the sixty-four generals of the Wucheng King Temple. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, he was ranked among the seventy-two generals of the Wu Temple. The only famous Eastern Jin general who shared such honors with him was Xie Xuan.
Of course, it is inevitable that high positions of authority will inevitably arouse the suspicion of the imperial court. Thinking that he alone holds the eight states of strong soldiers, if there is a different heart, to smash the Sima family's pot, another stove, with his strength, it should not be difficult.
In the "Biography of Tao Kanlie" written by Fang Xuanling and others in the Tang Dynasty, it is said that he had the heart of disobedience, "and the governor of the eight states, according to the upper class, holding strong soldiers, and having the ambition to spy on the poor."
As for why Tao Kan did not create a rebellion against the Sima family, the book records that it was only because he had a dream: "The dream was born with eight wings, flew up to the sky, saw the nine weights of the Heavenly Gate, had ascended its eighth, and the only door was not allowed to enter." The scepter strikes it with a staff, and because it falls to the ground, it breaks its left wing. ”
This is a bit bizarre, Tao Kan dreamed that he had eight wings, does this imply that he holds eight states in his hands? Flying to heaven means that he wants to ascend the throne and become an emperor himself, but when he goes to heaven, he finds that there are nine levels of heaven's gate, does this imply that Tianzi is in charge of nine states, or that Tianzi is nine dings? Tao Kan dreamed that he had entered the eight-fold gate, and when he entered the last door, he was beaten by the old man who guarded the door, so he fell to the ground and injured his left wing.
Therefore, when Tao Kan later thought of this dream of folding wings, he would dispel the idea of becoming an emperor. "Every thought of the auspiciousness of folding wings, self-inhibition."
Do you think this is possible? Once a person has that kind of ambition, is it something that a small dream of nothingness can stop?
Personally, I think that Tao Kan devoted his life to the country, and the dream of "folding wings" was a slander by the author of the "Book of Jin".
After Tao Kan was worshipped by the imperial court as a great general, he resolutely resigned the privilege of "walking on the sword to the temple, entering the dynasty without tendency, and praising and worshiping without name". This top privilege Wang Mang and Cao Cao both enjoyed it calmly, but Xie Xuan did not have this blessing, so it was reasonable to call Tao Kan the first general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. At that time, Tao Kan was already an old man in his seventies, did not want to participate in the politics of the dynasty, and wanted to tell the old man to return to his hometown many times, and he was always bitterly retained.
In June of the ninth year of Xianhe (334), Tao Kan abdicated during his illness and sent the left chief Shi Yinxian to return the official seal festival to the imperial court. Before he left Jingzhou, military supplies, war, cattle and horses, boats and boats, etc., all had books and statistics, sealed warehouses, and he personally locked them.
I ask you, does such a person look like he is going to rebel?
References: Book of Jin, Zizhi Tongjian, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Quan Song Wen, Table of Distant Ancestors of Tao