Classical Prose
桃花源记
陶渊明
晋太元中,武陵人捕鱼为业。
缘溪行,忘路之远近。
忽逢桃花林,夹岸数百步,中无杂树,芳草鲜美,落英缤纷。
渔人甚异之。复前行,欲穷其林。
林尽水源,便得一山。山有小口,仿佛若有光。
便舍船,从口入。初极狭,才通人。
复行数十步,豁然开朗。
土地平旷,屋舍俨然,有良田、美池、桑竹之属。
阡陌交通,鸡犬相闻。
其中往来种作,男女衣着,悉如外人。
黄发垂髫,并怡然自乐。
见渔人,乃大惊,问所从来。具答之。
便要还家,设酒杀鸡作食。
村中闻有此人,咸来问讯。
自云先世避秦时乱,率妻子邑人来此绝境,不复出焉。
遂与外人间隔。
问今是何世,乃不知有汉,无论魏晋。
此人一一为具言所闻,皆叹惋。
余人各复延至其家,皆出酒食。
停数日,辞去。
此中人语云:“不足为外人道也。”
既出,得其船,便扶向路,处处志之。
及郡下,诣太守,说如此。
太守即遣人随其往,寻向所志,遂迷,不复得路。
南阳刘子骥,高尚士也,闻之,欣然规往。
未果,寻病终。
后遂无问津者。
Translation
During the Taiyuan period of the Jin dynasty, a fisherman of Wuling followed a stream and forgot how far he had gone. He came upon a grove of peach trees stretching for hundreds of paces with no other trees among them. The fragrant grass was fresh and beautiful, and fallen petals drifted everywhere. At the end of the grove he found a mountain with a small opening. He entered and found a peaceful village with fertile fields, beautiful ponds, mulberry trees, and bamboo. The people had fled the chaos of the Qin age and lived there in isolation, unaware of the Han, Wei, or Jin dynasties. They lived happily and peacefully. After being warmly entertained, the fisherman left and marked the way, but could never find the place again.
Analysis
Record of the Peach Blossom Spring is Tao Yuanming's most famous prose work and one of the defining visions of utopia in Chinese literature. The opening is deliberately plain — a fisherman from Wuling follows a stream and forgets how far he has gone. This forgetting marks the gradual departure from ordinary reality. The peach blossom grove functions as a threshold: only peach trees, no mixed species, fresh grass, falling petals — beautiful but slightly unreal. The fisherman reaches a small opening in a mountain, enters a narrow passage, and then 'suddenly it opened into brightness.' This is one of the most famous moments in Chinese prose: confinement gives way to clarity. The world inside is not a luxurious heaven but an orderly agricultural village — flat land, houses, fields, ponds, mulberry, bamboo, chickens, dogs, farming, and mutual hospitality. The line about old people and children being happy is central: a society can be judged by whether its most vulnerable members live in ease. The villagers fled the chaos of the Qin dynasty and cut themselves off from the outside world. They do not know of the Han, much less Wei and Jin. Their isolation means freedom from dynastic violence. Yet the place cannot be recovered once reported to authority. The fisherman marks the way and tells the governor, but when officials try to find it, they become lost. The Peach Blossom Spring may be encountered by accident, but it cannot be possessed, mapped, or governed. The later attempt by Liu Ziji also fails. The ending leaves the Peach Blossom Spring suspended between reality and dream. The greatness of the piece lies in its modesty: Tao Yuanming does not design a vast political system. He imagines a small village without war, coercion, ambition, or social terror. People farm, eat, welcome guests, and live with their families. In a violent age, that simplicity becomes a radical ideal.
About the Author
Tao Yuanming, also known as Tao Qian, was a poet and prose writer of the late Eastern Jin and early Liu Song period. His courtesy name was Yuanliang, and he was from Chaisang in Xunyang. After brief service in government, he withdrew from official life and lived in the countryside, famously refusing to 'bend his back for five pecks of grain.' He is one of the most important pastoral poets in Chinese literary history. His work is known for natural simplicity, moral independence, love of rural life, and longing for spiritual freedom. Major works include 'Returning to the Fields and Gardens,' 'Drinking Wine,' 'Record of the Peach Blossom Spring,' 'Returning Home,' and 'Biography of the Gentleman of Five Willows.'