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T'ao Ch'ien (365-427) was one of China's foremost poets in the five-word shih style, and his influence on subsequent poets was very great.

Also known as T'ao Yüan-ming, T'ao Ch'ien lived during the Eastern Chin and Liu Sung dynasties. He was born in Ch'ai-sang in present-day Kiangsi Province, the great-grandson of T'ao K'an, a famed Chin general. Both his grandfather and father had served as perfects, but by T'ao Ch'ien's time the family must have become poorer, and despite his preference for a life of seclusion he held at least four different posts during some dozen years (393-405) in order to support his family.

T'ao Ch'ien has been too often described as a Taoist nature poet with his fondness for wine and for chrysanthemums. It is true that he delights in nature and in wine, but he is far more a philosophic or meditative poet than an idyllic or bucolic one. He represents the culmination of the five-word poetry of the Han dynasty with its obsession with life's meaning; and with his strong attraction to Confucian endeavor and knightly chivalry, his his intellectual makeup is far more complex than the word "Taoist" would convey.

T'ao Ch'ien was not recognized as a major poet until the T'ang dynasty. By the Sung times, however, his status as one of China's greatest lyrical poets had become generally recognized, and his poetry has never ceased to fascinate the Chinese since.

ellectual makeup is far more complex than the word "Taoist" would convey.

Chang Chiu-ling A.D. 673-740. A native of Ch'ü-chiang in Kuangtung — from which he is sometimes called 曲江公 — who flourished as a statesman and poet under the Emperor Ming Huang of the T'ang dynasty. Graduating high on the list of chin shih, his profound learning gained for him the sobriquet of 文塇元帥, and he soon attracted the notice of Chang Yüeh who introduced him into public life. In conjunction with Han Hsiu, he ventured to remonstrate against the licentiousness and misrule which prevailed. In A.D. 736, on the occasion of an Imperial birthday, when others presented rare and costly gifts, including mirrors obtained at great expense from distant lands, he offered only a collection of wise precepts. He sought in vain to awaken the Emperor to the treasonable designs of An Lu-shan. He himself was attacked by Li Lin-fu (q. v.) over the appointment of Niu Hsien-k'o, and was banished to Ching-chou. Later on, Ming Huang found out what a valuable counsellor he had lost, and ennobled him as Earl, not long after which he died. It is also said that when new Ministers were afterwards recommended, his Majesty invariably asked if they were anything like Chang Chiu-ling. He was very reserved in manner and punctiliously formal in all matters of ceremony. His poems are among the most brilliant even of the brilliant age in which he lived. In his youth he used to communicate with his relatives by means of carrier-pigeons, which he trained in large numbers, and which he called his "flying slaves." When his mother died, he planted a purple-flowered "shrub of longevity" by her grave, whereupon white birds came and nested in the trees around, — both these being mourning colours! Was canonised as 文獻.

by Herbert A. Giles

T'ao Ch'ien

On Returning To A Country Life

Translated by Charles Budd

My youth was spent amidst the simple charms

Of country scenes - secure from worldly din,

And then, alas! I fell into the net

Of public life, and struggled long therein.

The captive bird laments its forest home;

The fish in tanks think of the sea's broad strands;

And I oft longed, amidst official cares,

To till a settler's plot in sunny lands.

And now I have my plot of fifteen mow,

With house thereon of rustic build and thatch;

The elm and willow cast a grateful shade,

While plum and peach trees fill the entrance patch.

Away from busy towns and dusty marts,

The dog barks in the silent country lane;

While chickens cluck among the mulberry trees,

And life is healthy and the mind is sane.

Here in my house - with room for friend or two,

On my own farm - won from the barren plain,

Escaped from cares of office and routine,

I live a free and natural life again.

Chang Chiu-ling

By Moonlight

Translated by Herbert A. Giles

Over the sea the round moon rises bright,

And floods the horizon with its silver light.

In absence lovers grieve that nights should be,

But all the livelong night I think of thee.

I blow my lamp out to enjoy the rest,

And shake the gathering dewdrop from my vest.

Alas! I cannot share with thee these beams,

So lay me down to seek thee in my dreams.

Ch'u Kuang-hsi

Rustic Felicity

Translated by W. J. B. Fletcher

My little farm five score of silk trees grows

And acres five of grain in ordered rows.

Thus having food and clothing and to spare

My bounty often with my friends I share.

The Summer brings the ku-mi rice so fine;

Chrysanthemums in Autumn spice the wine.

My jolly spouse is glad my friends to see:

And my young son obeys me readily.

At eve I dawdle in the garden fair

With elms and willows shaded everywhere.

When, wine elated, Night forbids me stay,

Through door and window grateful breezes play.

Bright, shoal and plain I see the Milky Way;

And high and low the bear o'er Heaven sway.

As yet intact some Bottles bear their Seal.

And shall tomorrow their contents reveal ?