T ao ch ien biography of michael

          Unlike Wordsworth, T'ao Yuan-ming did not seem to have to "toil" to find the truth, or the Tao, in his life....

          Tao Chien, also known as Tao Yuanming, was a 5th century Chinese poet who came from a notable family that had fallen into poverty.

        1. Tao Chien, also known as Tao Yuanming, was a 5th century Chinese poet who came from a notable family that had fallen into poverty.
        2. The scholar-professional artist T'ao Ch'eng was born in Pao-ying, a district of.
        3. Unlike Wordsworth, T'ao Yuan-ming did not seem to have to "toil" to find the truth, or the Tao, in his life.
        4. Abstract Studies on Tao Yuanming have often focused on his personality, reclusive life, and pastoral poetry.
        5. After holding several official posts he abandoned a traditional government career for the life of a reclusive gentleman farmer.

          6. The Shih Ching , usually translated as either The Book of Songs or the Classic of Poetry, is the first great collection of Chinese poetry. Tradition says that it was edited into its present form by the Sage of Sages, Confucius himself.

          In fact the book was assembled before, during, and after the life of Confucius. Its more than three hundred poems include fragments of works as old as the Shang Dynasty (traditional; dates 1766-1154 BCE) as well as “contemporary” poems from the Chou feudal states written or spoken by both aristocratic court figures and just plain “folks”.

          A great deal has been said about the origin of many, if not the majority of the poems as oral “folk” art, but it is clear from the artistry of the written language in which they have been handed down that, like the scribes who improved upon the originally oral poetry attributed to “Homer” in the West to create the Iliad and the Odyssey, the people who converted Chou folk songs and court verses into poetry in written