Who is a Taoist nature poet?
T’ao Ch’ien has been too often described as a Taoist nature poet with his fondness for wine and for chrysanthemums. It is true that he was consumed by nature and wine, but he was far more a philosophic or meditative poet rather than an idyllic or bucolic one. He represents the culmination of the five-word poetry of the Han dynasty with its obsession with life’s meaning; and with his strong attraction to Confucian endeavor and knightly chivalry, his intellectual makeup is far more complex than the word “Taoist” would convey.
