Abstract
The image of "The Peach Blossom Spring" created by Tao Yuanming (365?-427) became a motif since the Liang dynasty in Chinese ancient literature. The reception of the Peach Blossom Spring had shown two dimensions of the nothingness and the concreteness during the Tang and Song dynasties. However, toward the late Qing dynasty, the gradual appearance of quasi-Peach Blossom Springs and the poeticization of them, perhaps due to the social turmoil, especially brought by the Taiping Civil War. The understanding of the unrealistic vision of the Peach Blossom Spring and the wish for it during the turmoil constructed the mindset of late Qing-dynasty poets by which they wavered between withdrawal from the society and stand-up to serve the society. The poetical writing of the Peach Blossom Spring in the late Qing dynasty shows the vitality of Tao Yuanming's the image, which, when resorted to during social turmoil, also displays as the traditional Confucian scholars' psychological adjustment and worldly wisdom to cope with the chaos.
First Page
172
Last Page
183
Recommended Citation
Sun, Qihua, and Shijin Luo. 2020. "A Study of the Phenomenon of the Quasi-Peach Blossom Spring and the Poetry in the Late-Qing Dynasty." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 40, (6): pp.172-183. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol40/iss6/2
