英文摘要 |
Tao Yuanming's 陶淵明 "Taohua yuanji" 桃花源記 (Record of Peach Blossom Spring) relates the story of a utopia discovered by a fisherman entering a cave. The Taohua yuan denotes the spirit world discovered in the cave, and as such the "Taohua yuanji" has been considered as part of a line of paradise narratives. However, in this article, we attempt to analyze the "Taohua yuanji" from a different angle. At the time when Tao Yuanming wrote the "Taohua yuanji," between the Eastern Jin and the Liu-Song, the spatial awareness of literati had undergone a significant change, which can be seen in their compilation of a large number of local chorographies that recorded stories about mountains, rivers, and the lands in which they were found. It is worth noting that descriptions of "spiritual realms" were present in local chorography. These spiritual realms contained beautiful landscapes, and men of the wilds were said to have often witnessed their unique features. In this article, we locate the "Taohua yuanji" within the context of the spiritual realms depicted in local chorography. The main texts dealt with here are Luo Han's 羅含 Xiangzhong ji 湘中記, Wang Xinzhi's 王歆之 Shenjing ji 神境記, and Yuan Shansong's 袁山松 Yidu ji 宜都記. When compared against the narrative content of these works, many points of commonality with the "Taohua yuanji" emerge. However, there is one significant difference. While the "spiritual realm" in local chorography is depicted as a place to which one can freely come and go, the Taohua yuan is closed and cannot be visited more than once. Did Tao Yuanming intentionally make the Taohua yuan a place to which one could not come and go? We know that Tao Yuanming read the Shanhai jing and enjoyed the ancient mythical world described therein. And, it is also evident that the simple ancient countryside he idealized did not exist in reality. For Tao, the "Taohua yuan" may have been modeled on the Shanhai jing: it was a fantasy playground world. That is, the "Taohua yuanji" is a story in which Tao Yuanming expressed his own ideals, and it may be said that he created an idealized "human realm" by imitating the "spiritual realm" found in local chorography. |