Although Tao Yuanming and Cui Zhiyuan were both members of the feudal ruling clique of their respective eras, because they were literati and had ambitions for lofty and pure political ideals, they were always incompatible with the atmosphere of the dark officialdom at that time.
This made both of them finally have no choice but to end their careers with a feeling full of helplessness and resentment, but the reasons for Tao Yuanming and Cui Zhiyuan's choice to live in seclusion after they quit the official arena were different, but it also showed the difference in their times.
Let's first look at Tao Yuanming, who was a local county order in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, or more precisely, the Pengze County Order. As a parent official on one side, it is reasonable to say that although Tao Yuanming does not have enough power, he can also use a county as a stage for his ambitions.
Moreover, Tao Yuanming has been an official for thirteen years in his lifetime, and from the perspective of political experience, Tao Yuanming is also a veteran of the official field, but even if he has lived in the official field for such a long time, he still has not been able to change Tao Yuanming's original literary ambitions.
The Tao Yuanming Collection reads: "The Tao will be the Way, and forget the hunger and cold." Yu tasted the xueshi and entangled in personnel affairs. Wandering and unsuccessful, afraid of negative ambitions. When I returned, I knew what I meant. Always willing to join hands and ignore the will of the other. Travel with Ru Kai, and sail with the boat. "
Maybe in our view today, or at the time, some people thought that this was the poor ambition of the poor student, or maybe you and I have not been able to reach Tao Yuanming's kind of cognition that the world is drunk and awake, so this feeling will appear.
When his sister died, Tao Yuanming believed that the time had finally come for him to free himself from more than ten years of helpless official life, and he resolutely resigned from the county order and returned to the hermitage on the grounds of mourning, and never returned.
Although Cui Zhiyuan also chose to go into hiding at the peak of his career, the important reason was that Silla at that time was in a very dark period.
At that time, Silla's traitors were in charge, and Choi's political ideas had not been supported, so after the realization of his political ambitions was hopeless, he chose to go into hiding.
From this, we can see that Tao Yuanming's retreat is to follow his own ambitions and wishes, while Cui Zhiyuan's retreat is more to show his absolute disappointment in politics, and finally chooses to quit helplessly.
Tao Yuanming's retreat was hasty and full of determination, which shows that Tao Yuanming's kind was deeply influenced by Confucian thought in governing the country and the world, which also enabled him to write a thousand famous sentences of "not bending the waist for five buckets of rice" after his retreat.
Tao Yuanming gave full play to the character of that kind of literati in the matter of resigning from the official and returning to hiding, and since this official field could not tolerate me, it was better to say that my heart could not tolerate this official field, which was the unique character trait of the scholars of that era.
The Tao YuanMing Collection says: "Returning to Xi, the world is contrary to me, and the repetition of the words is begging? And to please the love words of relatives, music piano books to dispel worries. The peasants told Yu Yichun that something would happen to the western domain. Or the life towel car, also rugged and through the hills. "
In the face of the darkness of Silla's political situation and the situation of his lonely war, Choi's heart fluctuates, and he wants to plan a better future for Silla through his knowledge and political thought.
Unfortunately, the reality of the situation has suppressed his political ambitions to death, which makes Cui Zhiyuan have an extremely pessimistic view of official life.
Compared with Tao Yuanming's open-mindedness and determination, Cui Zhiyuan seems to be a little reluctant to let go, and seems to be somewhat attached to his official life, but he is also tied up by the personality of the literati and scholars, who is not in harmony with the world, which creates cui Zhiyuan's own contradictory personality.
And this completely different attitude directly created the different experiences of the two people saying goodbye to their careers and entering a secluded life.
After Returning to the countryside, Tao Yuanming seemed to be integrated with nature and the people, which can be seen from his daily life, that is, working at the sunrise of five nights and nine places, and resting at sunset, at the same time, Tao Yuanming also created a large number of pastoral poetry after his retreat, winning the reputation of pastoral poet.
After Cui Zhiyuan was far away from his career, he did not choose to settle down and live, but released his depression by traveling through famous mountains and rivers and visiting customs and customs.
Since there is no talent and ambition in the official arena, wouldn't it be better to use the mountains and rivers and the people as the stage?
Tao Yuanming was an intellectual living in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the entire historical situation of China at that time in which the Eastern Jin Dynasty was located was indeed a critical period of great division and great change.
At this time, the north was in chaos, and many ethnic minorities who had entered the Central Plains had begun to establish their own political power, and in the exchange and absorption of Han civilization, they were constantly moving towards feudalization.
Although the north was in chaos, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was in a quiet corner, lived a tasteful life by virtue of the natural dangers of the Yangtze River that were still insurmountable at that time, which also created the character of the Eastern Jin ruling clique that did not want to make progress.
This also led to the formation of a party tilting situation within the Eastern Jin Dynasty, coupled with the era of belonging to the Door Valve clan at that time, so Tao Yuanming, such an arrogant intellectual, must not have a day to emerge.
To this end, he chose to retire to live a carefree pastoral life, and when she really approached the life of the vast number of working people, he truly liberated his body and mind.
As a result, Tao Yuanming's style of creation after seclusion began to be constantly grounded, living a life of farming and free drinking every day, and most of his poems depicted pastoral fun and life.
Cui Zhiyuan was ostracized by other officials and eventually had to retire, and the vision and reluctance of his beautiful political ambitions in his heart actually existed.
However, in order to adhere to the pride of intellectuals, he chose to retreat, and then entered the golden age of literary creation when he traveled through the famous mountains and rivers of the motherland and the customs and customs of the land.
Cui's literary content and subject matter mainly come from natural landscapes, which shows that although he was forced to retreat, he was still full of admiration for the beautiful mountains and rivers, but this may also be a way for him to divert his attention.
Later, poetry praises and praises against the Silla people began, which played an important role in encouraging Silla to resist the invasion of powerful enemies in the future.