"The knot is in the human realm, and there is no noise of cars and horses. Ask Jun He Neng'er, the heart is far away from the self-deviation" This is a poem in Tao Yuanming's "Drinking". As shown in the verse, Tao Yuanming became a hermit.
But such a hermit, in fact, was also an active disciple at the beginning, but unfortunately, the darkness of society made him abandon the world and become a hermit.
Tao Yuanming was born into a family of declining Shu landlords and lived in Chaisang, Xunyang since childhood. The mountains here are high and clear, the folk customs are simple, and the landscape of the hometown has a profound impact on the cultivation of Tao Yuanming's character. Although Tao Yuanming's family was not well-off in his youth, he studied diligently, and the history recorded: "Less study of piano books, occasionally love to be idle, open the volume has gains, and gladly forget to eat."
Tao Yuanming, who came from a landlord family, was inevitably influenced by Confucian culture, which is not difficult to see from his active entry into the army in his early years. Tao Yuanming, who stood in his thirties, entered the official field to "raise the state sacrifice wine", although the official position was humble, but it was also full of deceit and deceit, and the decadent style of mutual deception. This comes from the sentence in his "Drinking": "In the past, he was hungry and hungry, and he threw himself to learn." Will not be able to raise, frozen and fixed to themselves. It is sometimes established in the year, and the ambition is more shameful" It is not difficult to see.
Even so, Tao Yuanming, who was still influenced by Confucianism at this time, still chose to be an official, and later held the positions of Ren Zhenjun and Jianwei Joining the Army. The last time he became an official was Peng Zeling, but unfortunately, after more than 80 days as an official, he finally dismissed him with the principle of "How can I bend my waist for five buckets of rice to go to the township children", even the reason for resigning from the official office is full of Confucian colors.
It was precisely because of the Confucian ideas of "Lide", "Li Yan", and "Meritorious Service" that came out of the world, but what awaited him was the cruel reality of the Door Valve System of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Under the pressure of this reality, Tao Yuanming's pursuit of ideals, Kuang Shi Ji's great ambitions, and "simultaneously helping the world" all disappeared, and the imprint of Confucianism on Tao Yuanming began to slowly dissolve.
The dark society has also changed Tao Yuanming's thinking, the influence of Confucianism has slowly dissolved, and the influence of metaphysics and Buddhism has become more and more obvious in Tao Yuanming. In fact, in addition to Confucianism, the ancient literati thought would also be influenced by the Buddha and Taoism. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, metaphysics (under the banner of the old Zhuang Daoists) prevailed, and one of the schools of metaphysics was inclined to obey nature. They oppose man-made ideas and aim to use nature against famous religions. For example, Ji Kang explicitly put forward the proposition of "teaching by virtue of the name and letting nature go", in order to oppose the hypocritical etiquette of the rulers and advocate going with nature.
Under the influence of this metaphysics, Tao Yuanming became noble in personality, high in ambition, and advocated nature, and thus became extremely tired of the eunuch of losing himself and serving in the form of his heart, which was precisely the performance of "nature" and victory over "famous religions" in his heart, and only in this way did he not contradict the moral code of the unity of truth and goodness that he had observed all his life.
On the other hand, Buddhism developed greatly in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, many people in the imperial family and the scholar clan believed in Buddhism, and the phenomenon of escaping from the world and becoming monks in society was also very common. In the middle and late Period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Buddhism flourished even more, and it has gained a self-reliant status by relying on metaphysics. Tao Yuanming was influenced by Buddhism, which was an inevitable trend in the influence of society at that time on him, and it was also his spiritual need to be liberated after his political ideals were shattered. From Tao Yuanming's poems, we can see the influence of Buddhism on his thought.
For example, Tao Yuanming's old mansion was once destroyed by fire, and he immediately wrote "One house without leaving a house", at this time he "read in the middle of the night, looking forward to the nine deaths of Zhou", his thoughts wandered around the vast cosmic space, and he got a certain understanding and liberation of life. Let's talk about the phrase "under the eastern fence of picking chrysanthemums, leisurely seeing the South Mountain" is also a masterpiece of Tao Yuanming's chanting when he revels in the middle of natural scenery and reaches the intersection of heart and material, and when things and things are one.
The Buddhist view of life and death also had a great influence on Tao Yuanming, and under the influence of Buddhist thought, Tao Yuanming developed a transcendent attitude towards life and death.
In his poem "The Shadow God", he expressed the idea of obeying the destiny in his heart: "Even if it hurts my life, it is appropriate to entrust it to transport it; in the midst of the great waves, it is neither happy nor afraid; it should be exhausted, and there is no need to worry about it" directly shows his attitude towards life and death extremely broad and optimistic. Verses such as "If you come and go, human reason will have an inherent end", "Life seems to be illusory, and eventually it will be empty" and other verses all show his Buddhist idea of happy heaven and peaceful life and empty everything.
In fact, Tao Yuanming's Buddhist thought is more related to his life experience. A life of ups and downs, the disillusionment of political ideals, after failure, return to the field, enjoy the idyllic quiet and peaceful life. After experiencing a variety of changes in the world, he finally gradually formed a calm and open-minded attitude towards life. All of this period formed a lot of happiness in his thinking, and all of this was influenced by Buddhism to a considerable extent.