Shi Tao and Tao Yuanming’s Poetic Album

[Shi Tao Tao Yuanming’s Poetic Atlas]

Tao Yuanming’s Poetic Atlas, Qing Dynasty, Shi Tao’s painting, paper edition, color setting, 27 cm vertically and 21.3 cm horizontally for each opening
This album is created by the author according to the verses of Tao Yuanming, a famous poet in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Tao Yuanming is the founder of Chinese idyllic poetry. His poems not only reflect the beauty and nature of idyllic life, but also reveal the contradiction between his wandering to become an official and returning to retirement. Painters obviously appreciate this philosophy of life, which is to avoid solitude, to be independent of the world and to be happy with life. They express their beautiful ideals by depicting the hermit Tao Yuanming who returns to nature, is indifferent to honor and wealth, and does not cooperate with the rulers
Here are two options for appreciation
The second edition of “See Nanshan leisurely”: many of Tao Yuanming’s poems contain poems about chrysanthemums: “Gather chrysanthemums under the east fence, see Nanshan leisurely”, “Autumn chrysanthemums have beautiful colors, and gather their beauty”, all of which describe his mood away from the secular world and the pleasure of being intoxicated with nature. He often uses chrysanthemums to express his lofty integrity and feelings through the quality of chrysanthemums. Shi Tao admires Tao Yuanming’s noble sentiments, so this picture shows the painter’s own thoughts and feelings through Tao Yuanming’s love of chrysanthemum. In the painting, the chrysanthemums are in full bloom in the fence yard. A high-ranking scholar holds the chrysanthemums to watch, and the leisurely state can be seen. The structure of this picture is exquisite, and the characters use fine pens. The distant mountains are painted with ink, and the mountainside is covered with clouds and mist, and the foot of the mountain is not visible, which shows the dynamic and momentum of misty clouds. This combination of center, fine hook and waterlogging makes the picture dynamic and static, combining virtual and real, with infinite interest
The sixth opening, “How deep is looking at the white clouds in the distance and remembering the ancient times”, depicts an old man in a wide cloth robe standing near the river. The old man looked at the green mountains from afar, and the streams flowed at his feet. Facing the bleak and empty landscape, the protagonist seems to be thinking a lot of things and thinking about the ancient. The painter took this picture to express his loneliness and lack of talent. The composition adopts the natural division method of one river and two banks. In the picture, we can only see the diffuse cloud mountain, the houses at the end of the mountain and the half-exposed pine forest, but not the foot of the mountain, and the top of the mountain seems to be exposed. The trees are painted with ink to set off the movement of white clouds on the mountainside


第一开：一士长独醉，一夫终年醒。醒醉还相笑，发言各不领。第三开：若复不快饮，空负头上巾。 但恨多谬误，君当恕醉人。第四开：狗吠深巷中，鸡鸣桑树颠。第五开：带月荷锄归第六开：遥遥望白云，怀古一何深。第七开：平生不止酒，止酒情无喜。第八开：饥来驱我去，不知竟何之。第九开：虽有五男儿，总不好纸笔。第十开：连林人不觉，独树众乃奇。第十一开：东方有一士，被服常不完。三旬九遇食，十年著一冠。第十二开：清晨闻叩门，倒裳往自开。 问子为谁与？田父有好怀。