Forefather of pastoral poetry, author of Peach Blossom Spring
A poet of the Eastern Jin, founder of Chinese pastoral poetry. Unwilling to "bow for five pecks of rice," he resigned office to till the fields and wrote lines of limpid, unforced naturalness — "picking chrysanthemums by the eastern hedge, I gaze afar at the southern hills" — opening a spiritual retreat for later scholars. His Peach Blossom Spring imagines an ideal village cut off from the world, free of war and taxes — "a paradise beyond the world" became an eternal utopia in the Chinese heart.
When Tao Yuanming was magistrate of Pengze, a superior sent an inspector, and his staff urged him to don his belt and greet the man properly. He sighed: "How can I bow to a village small-fry for five pecks of rice!" That very day he handed back his seal and resigned to the fields. This turning-away became a model for countless later scholars who would not stoop.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.