Research On Qu Yuan And Tao Yuanming In Yuan Sanqu

Many historical people are mentioned in Yuan Sanqu which is a type of verse with tonal patterns modeled on tunes drawn from folk music in Yuan Dynasty. Among them Tao Yuanming and Qu Yuan are the most influential figures in Chinese history. Writers of Yuan Sanqu strongly incline to prefer Tao Yuanming to Qu Yuan. They do not approve Qu Yuan who is concerned about affairs of the state, cares about the common people and dedicates himself to his ideal. On the contrary, they speak highly of Tao Yuanming who resigns from office and leads a life of ease in seclusion. Their evaluation of Tao Yuanming and Qu Yuan is obviously different from the traditional one. By analyzing the difference carefully and researching into the underlying causes actively, we can get a further understanding and a good grasp of both cultural connotation in Yuan Sanqu and the writers'ideological trends.Since traditional culture of Confucianism had a profound effect on ancient China's scholars, they developed such a kind of thought that you should make yourself good when you are unappreciated while you should make the whole world good when you are successful. They would like to make a great contribution to their country and lead a meaningful life. However, they would rather live in seclusion to improve themselves and bide their time if their genius was unrecognized and lofty aspirations were unrealized. The culture of Confucianism includes a kind of view of life that only if the country is well governed one will become an official, or one will retire from office. In different circumstances, the intellectuals in Chinese feudal society were provided with two flexible choices, to seclude from the world or to serve the country. Qu Yuan represented one side of traditional Chinese culture, being an official. All his life he was concerned about his country and his people and lived up to beliefs of Confucianism that serve the country energetically. Tao Yuanming represented the other side of the traditional Chinese culture, being a recluse. He was indifferent to fame and wealth and was steadfast in faith of Confucianism that make themselves perfect alone. They stood for two quite different life values respectively and exerted a far-reaching impact on later age.Authors of Yuan Sanqu depreciated and satirized Qu Yuan in their works. In their opinion QuYuan's hard work and efforts were weak, even useless. On the contrary, they admired Tao Yuanming for his life with poetry and wine and they were yearning for this way of life which was calm, cozy and carefree. In fact, Tao Yuanming and Qu Yuan in Yuan Sanqu are no more historical people; they have already become a kind of symbol of cultural values. The authors of Yuan Sanqu did not intentionally judge Qu Yuan's and Tao Yuanming's attitudes to life and value orientation. They simply expressed their own outlook on life and individual sentiment by the two totally different symbols of cultural values. Both approval of Tao Yuanming and disapproval of Qu Yuan exactly reflected their complicated attitudes to life and the whole society at that time. In Yuan Dynasty ethnic group entered and hosted the Central Plains. In such a unified country there existed an intense clash and fusion between farming culture and prairie culture. In addition, the ruler of Mongol carried out a policy of ethnic oppression and abolished the imperial examination. Therefore there was no chance of advancement in official career for the ancient China's scholars who felt completely desperate and hopeless. They were consequently in favor of seclusion as Tao Yuanming, while Qu Yuan's cultural values that is to be an official positively suffered the unprecedented impact under the special social background in Yuan Dynasty.