—During Taiyuan Era of the Jin Dynasty, there was a man from Wuling prefecture, fishing for a living. One day, rolling along the stream, he lost track of the distance. Suddenly, there were peach trees lining up the banks. For hundreds of steps, there were no other kinds of trees. Fragrant herbs fresh and beautiful, falling petals scattered around. The fisherman, quite astonished, traveled further, hoping to find the end of the forest.
At the source of the spring, the forest ended. There was a hill with a small opening where, seemingly, lights were coming through. . .
Tao Yuanming, the great poet of the Eastern Jin, wrote a poem entitled “Peach Blossom Spring,” accompanied by a prose anecdotal narration:[1]
A fisherman, by accident, found a beautiful peach forest. Hidden behind the forest was an isolated village where, for centuries, folks lived joyfully without the disturbance from the outside world. They had no knowledge of the changes of regimes. The cycles of seasons marked their calendar. They were courteous to the visitor and were curious to hear his stories.
After a few days, as the fishermen prepared to leave, the elders said to him, “What we have here is not worth mentioning to others.” The fisherman left traces along his way out, located his boat, and returned home. His attempts to trace back to the village all failed. An elite, learning the incidence, wished to follow up, yet died before having a chance.
Peach Blossom Spring had since become a symbol of a Utopian world. Some enthusiasts searched for possible locations that inspired Tao. Did he actually need a realistic model for his creation?
Tao Yuanming was born in the late Eastern Jin (c. 365). In his thirties, Tao entered governmental services. Unfortunately, instead of fulfilling his goals of supporting the courts and providing public services, he ended up working under shadowy figure with rebellious ambitions. His poems of this period often reflected his struggles. After several attempts, serving in various capacities, he retreated from public life and return to his hometown. Natural scenery and rustic life became the frequent subjects of his mature works.
The “Peach Blossom Spring” was written in 421, one year after Liu Yu overthrew the Jin court and established Liu Song. Tao used the imaginary village to reflect his ideal. Interestingly, the fisherman did not stay there permanently. Were there things in his old world that he could not let go? Did he intend to bring others into this fantasy land?
亂世 luan shì is a common expression in Chinese, describing a turbulent time. 亂 means “disorderly.” 世 is a complicated word that can be applied to time, as “generation,” “period,” “century;“ and “dynasty,” or applied to space, as the “world.” Anyone who has lived in the States through 2020 should have no problem relating to this expression.
Two days after the election, I was in Midtown Manhattan. All the storefronts, including those of Macy’s flagship store, were boarded up. The message “Give, Love, Believe” in Macy’s iconic red and white was jarring to the eyes as well as to the minds.
Give, Love, Believe
I do not dream of colorful spring blossoms or fragrant herbs. I do not need to be living in a fantasy land. Instead, I hope to give more and to love more. I believe that, one day, familiarity will be the norm again. Would this day come soon?
As the three kingdoms divided the nation, China fell into a prolonged period of darkness and uncertainty. A brief reunification during the Western Jin Dynasty 西晉 (266 – 316 AD) was cut short by the invasion of Xiongnu in 311 AD.[1] Fleeing the invaders, a branch of the Jin court moving southward and founded the Eastern Jin 東晉 in Jiankang 建康, today’s Nanjing. Northern China remained in the hands of nomadic tribes—Xiongnu 匈奴, Jié 羯, Dī 氐, Qiang羌, and Xianbei 鮮卑—named “five barbarians” by historians. The power struggles amongst the tribes resulted in the existence of the “Sixteen Kingdoms.”[2] This north-south split, with the Yangtze River as the dividing line, would continue in the following centuries.
In 420 AD, Liu Yu 劉裕 overturned the Eastern Jin and established Liu Song 劉宋, the first of the “Southern Dynasties,” followed by Southern Qi 南齊 (479 – 502), Southern Liang 南涼 (502 – 557) and Chen 陳 (557 – 589). Xianbei leader Tuòba Taó 拓跋燾, Taiwu Emperor of the Northern Wei 北魏太武皇帝, eliminated Northern Liang 北涼 in 439 and unified the region. Thus, began the “Northern Dynasties,” threatening its southern counterpart with great military and economic strengths.[3]
Emperor Taiwu and his successors embraced the Han culture and administrative model. They encouraged interethnic marriages between the Xianbei and the Han people, and adopted Chinese names. These Sinicization practices eventually caused infightings within the tribe. Around 535, Northern Wei was spilt into Eastern and Western Wei, which, in turn, became Northern Qi and Northern Zhou.[4]
Throughout the three hundred sixty odd years of divisions and conflicts, six sovereignties—Sun Wu of the Three Kingdoms, Eastern Jin, Liu Song, Southern Qi, Southern Liang, and Chen—resided in the city of Jinakang. Based on this fact, Xu Song 許嵩 of the Tang Dynasty in his documentary work Jiankang Shilu 建康實錄 coined the term “Six Dynasties.” Sima Guang 司馬光 of the Song Dynasty, traced the ruling Han authorities and applied the term to Cao Wei, Jin, Liu Song, Southern Qi, Southern Liang, and Chen. Both excluded the nomadic states.[5]
Chinese culture went through fundamental changes during the Six Dynasties. As the Jin court lost its control of the Central Plains, large groups of aristocrats and elites emigrated to the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain, bringing with them wealth and cultural traditions of the north. Jiankang, with its elevated status as the first southern capital, became a nurturing environment for cultural convergence.[6] At the same time, ethnic integration in the north brought new energy and diversity into a culture which was already rich and complex.
Social order and familial hierarchy, fundamental principles of Ruism, disintegrated amid political crises. Taoism, another traditional Chinese philosophy, with its emphasis of “ways of nature” and “non-action,” became prominent during the Six Dynasties. Buddhism, first introduced to China in the Han Dynasty, also gained popularity and importance.[7] In later periods, these three principles, regardless of their differences—or, at times, conflicts, amalgamated into the essence of Chinese philosophy.
The rise of Buddhism, reinforced by the devotions of rulers of North Wei and South Liang, invigorated sculptural and architectural creations, manifested by the stone carvings at Yungang 雲岡 and Longmen 龍門 Grottoes, both listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[8] Similarly, high level of productions both in quantity and quality also took place in painting and decorative arts. All of them reflected mixed influences from different cultures.
Centuries after the creation of ink brush and paper, with the development of a “regular script” of Chinese character during Cao Wei in early 200 AD, calligraphy as an art form gained ground during the Six Dynasties.[9]Preface to the Collection of Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion (Lantingji Xu, 蘭亭集序) by Wang Xizi 王羲之, one of the calligraphy greats, provided us the perfect insights of literary activities of this period:
In March of 353, Wang, four of his sons, and other literary figures—forty-two total, gathered at “Orchid Pavilion”—”Lanting” in Kuaiji prefecture, today’s Shaoxing of Zhejiang province, for a “Spring Purification Ceremony.” Thirty-seven poems were composed as part of a drinking game. Wang, instantaneously, wrote a preface to this poetic collection on silk-cocoon paper with weasel-hair brush, which he prepared specially for the occasion. He first narrated the beautiful settings and the festivities, then, turned into laments of fleeting life.[10]
Legend has it that Wang, having become sober, made four attempts to copy the script. However, he failed to recreate the free-flowing touch of the original.
One of the existing copies of Lantingji Xu
Six-Dynasties Poetry
Six-Dynasties poetry inherited and furthered the style of Jian’an Period. Over the three-hundred-plus-year period the differences between musical ballad—yuèfǔ, and literary poem—shi crystalized, as fù remained a popular form.[11] The prominence of five-syllable verses continued to grow.
Midnight Songs 子夜歌 was the most well-known collection of Six-Dynasties yuèfǔ. These amorous ballades were five-syllable quatrains, very similar to jueju of the Tang (618 – 907 AD) poems. Some of them were grouped by four seasons thematically.[12] Written from a feminine point of view with genuine expressions and sensuous tone, these works were uniquely significant in the development of yuèfǔ as well as feminism/femininity in Chinese literature.
Distinctive authors throughout the Six Dynasties, from “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove” 竹林七賢 of the third century to Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 and Xie Lingyun 謝靈運 of the Eastern Jin, all used natural scenery as the backdrop of their works. Retrieved from public lives by choice, their writing often reflected influence from Taoism and Buddhism. Escapism, initiated in the Jian’an period, continued to be a trend during the Six Dynasties.[13]
Liu Xie of the Southern Liang, dismayed by the lack of substance in literary works, produced The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragon (Wén Xīn Diāo Lóng, 文心雕龍), the first comprehensive analytical work in Chinese literature. In his monumental work, Liu praised the contribution of Confucius in poetry and literature. Yet, the work was completed during his residency at Dinglin Monastery. Inevitably, Buddhist philosophy also impacted his approach.
In addition to the structural development, phonological evolution from Eastern Han Chinese to Middle Chinese should not be overlooked. The former, documented in Shiming 釋名, a dictionary of the Eastern Han Dynasty, c. 200 AD, already showed phonological changes from Old Chinese. Middle Chinese, practiced from the Northern and Southern Dynasties (c. fifth century) to the Song Dynasty, further departed from the old systems.[14]
In 601 AD, twenty years after Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty unified China, Lù Fǎyán 陸法言 published his Qieyun 切韻, a rhyme dictionary. With the intention of solidifying the diverse pronunciations of classical texts, Lù organized 12,158 characters by four tones and divided them into 193 rhyme groups. This book, with addendum as well as modifications over time, not only provided pronunciation guidance for poetic recitation, but also had pivotal influence on poetic construction in later periods.[15]
Politically, the Six Dynasties marked one of the darkest periods in Chinese history. On the other hand, inter-ethnic contacts, and large-scale migrations resulted in diversification of Chinese culture. Although Ruism remains the center of Chinese philosophy, Taoism and Buddhism gained importance. Linguistic and literary analysis solidified the versification. All these movements paved the way for the golden era of Chinese poetry in the Tang and Song Dynasties.
