I lived from 356-427. I was from China, and am in the Asian category.
Tao Chien, or Tao Yuan Ming, born in 356 AD, was an early Taoist poet who is generally regarded as being one of the foremost pre-Tang poets. Tao was a native of Chaisang and was of the Eastern Jin dynasty. His family became poor and therefore, at around the age of thirty, Tao sought work in local government, but resigned soon afterwards. A number of other short lived appointments followed. At the age of 41 he gave up on society's Confucian ideals and retired Jiangsu province near Lu Mountain. He more than twenty years in retirement and led a simple, reclusive life, supporting his family through farming. During this time he wrote a great deal of poetry. 120 pieces of his work have survived to this day, many of them written in a philosophical vein. He was a precursor of a type of pastoral landscape poetry known as tianyuan shi, and favored themes such as drinking and rustic life. Tao Chien died in 427 AD.
Biography Information:
www.renditions.org
www.unc.edu
Biography Information:
www.renditions.org
www.unc.edu
Popular poetry
- I made my home amidst this human bustle,
Yet I hear no clamour from the carts and horses.10 lines, 4 comments - When young, I'd not enjoyed the common pleasures,
My nature's basic love was for the hills.20 lines, 3 comments - Destiny and life both have an ending;
From of old it has been so.17 lines - Though life is brief, feeling is everlasting;
That is why man wants to live long.18 lines - Slowly autumn comes to an end.
Painfully cold a dawn wind thicks the dew.16 lines, 1 comment - In the summer grass and trees have grown.
Over my roof the branches meet.16 lines - My home was formerly at Shangching,
And six years ago I left it.16 lines - I sow my beans below the southern hills,
Though grasses flourish, the sprouting beans are scarce.8 lines, 1 comment - An empty boat glides on without oars,
Returning to the infinite.17 lines
