T'ao Yüan-ming or T'ao Ch'ien, 365–427, Chinese poet. After several bitter experiences in government employment, he became a gentleman farmer. His poems, composed in simple diction at a time when ornateness was the fashion, present a mocking self-portrait of an inept and destitute scholar struggling to lead the bucolic life of a peasant; they praise Confucian ideals, explore Taoist and Buddhist concepts, and express contentment in reading, music, and wine.
See studies by J. R. Hightower (1970) and A. R. Davis (2 vol., 1984).
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