Tao Yuanming: Peach Blossom Water Source Story

Tao Yuanming probably wrote the poem Peach Blossom Water Source Story near the end of his life. Many of China’s most famous poets have either written their own poems based upon this one, or have used lines or images from it in their own work. Before the poem itself, Tao Yuanming wrote a rather lengthy introduction for the reader.  This introduction is not accompanied with the Chinese characters or pinyin.

[updated September 2022]

Peach Blossom Water Source

桃 花 源 记

赢 氏 乱 天 纪
贤 者 避 其 世
黄 绮 之 商 山
伊 人 亦 云 逝.

往 迹 浸 复 湮
来 径 遂 芜 废
相 命 肆 农 耕
日 入 从 所 憩.

桑 竹 垂 馀 荫
菽 稷 随 时 艺
春 蚕 收 长 丝
秋 熟 靡 王 税.

荒 路 暧 交 通
鸡 犬 互 鸣 吠
俎 豆 犹 古 法
衣 裳 无 新 制.

童 孺 纵 行 歌
斑 白 欢 游 诣
草 荣 识 节 和
木 衰 知 风 历.

虽 无 纪 历 志
四 时 自 成 岁                                                                                                        怡 然 有 馀 乐
于 何 劳 智 慧 ？

奇 踪 隐 五 百
一 朝 敞 神 界
淳 薄 既 异 源
旋 复 还 幽 蔽.

借 问 游 方 士
焉 测 尘 嚣 外 ？
愿 言 蹑 轻 风
高 举 寻 吾 契.

Tao Hua Yuan Ji

Ying shi luan tian ji
Xian zhe bi qi shi.
Huang qi zhi shang shan
Yi ren yi yun shi.

Wang ji jin fu yan
Lai jing sui wu fei.
Xiang ming si nong geng
Ri ru cong suo qi.

Sang zhu chui yu yin
Shu ji sui shi yi.
Chun can shou chang si
Qiu shu mi wang shui.

Huang lu ai jiao tong
Ji quan hu ming fei.
Zu dou you gu fa
Yi chang wu xin zhi,

Tong ru zong xing ge
Ban bai huan you yi.
Cao rong shi jie he
Mu shuai zhi feng li.

Sui wu ji li zhi
Si shi zi cheng sui.                                                                                                                        Yi ran you yu yue
Yu he lao zhi hui ?

Qi zong yin wu bai
Yi zhao chang shen jie.
Chun bao ji yi yuan
Xuan fu huan you bi.

Jie wen you fang shi
Yan ce chen xiao wai ?
Yuan yan nie qing feng
Gao ju xun wu qi.

Peach Blossom Water Source Story

Introduction: by Tao Yuanming

[During the early Jin Dynasty, a fisherman rowed up a river. Not knowing how far he had gone, the river began to narrow into a stream. He suddenly encountered a land filled with blooming peach trees on both riverbanks. He traveled through the large orchards of peach trees and brightly colored grasses. Peach flower petals were floating everywhere on the wind. Rowing further upstream he came to the stream’s end at a small mountain. There he found a small cave and left his boat to enter it. Although the entrance was narrow, it soon widened out the further he went in. He eventually came out into a wide meadow. There he found houses, all in a row, with fertile soil, and a small lake with crystal clear water, surrounded by bamboo and mulberry trees. In every direction were fields, crisscrossed by small levees and embankments. From each house came the sounds of chickens and dogs. The people were wearing different clothes, like from another dynasty. All of the generations of people were smiling and happy.

Very surprised to see the fisherman, they asked him where he came from. He answered every one of their questions. They invited him to their homes. In every house was a table full of food, including wine and chicken. All of the village people asked him about what it was like on the outside. Then they told him their own stories.

Their great-grandfathers left the Qin Dynasty to come here. They brought their whole families and entire villages. The people have never traveled away from this place. They have had no contact with the outside world until the fisherman arrived. The people asked him what dynasty it was now. They were not aware of the Han or Jin dynasties. The fisherman told them all about the outside world. The village people could hardly believe their ears. Although every family invited him into their homes, after several days he wanted to return to his hometown. They told him not to disclose any knowledge of them, or of this place. He left and went out in his boat. Along the way he planted many markers on the way back to the city of Wuling. He went right away to visit the mayor to tell him his story. A posse followed him in order to try and find this place again. The fisherman could not find his way back to this place.]

Poem:

In the era of Emperor Ying Shi, times were full of turmoil and chaos by not following Heaven
Those of virtue and wisdom avoided their own society.
Huang and Qi fled into the Shang Mountains
These kind of people seemed to have disappeared.

Any outward signs of their past has gradually sunk into oblivion
Their footpaths abandoned and overgrown with weeds.                                  They became determined to be self-sufficient, and to help with each other’s fate
At every sunset they go home to rest.

Mulberry trees and bamboo hang down to create large areas of shade
Beans and millet flourish and beautify during this season.
Springtime silkworms gathered to make silk                                                           Did not need to give the emperor any taxes from the autumn harvests.

At dusk, overgrown paths between the houses
Chicken and dogs talk to each other.
Implements of prayer still reflect the simple and ancient ways
Children free to roam about and sing.

White-haired elders love to visit each other                                                      Grasses and plants know it is the time of warmth and harmony.
Trees with falling leaves know the severe winds
Although the people have no calendars, they remember the procession of festivals.

The four seasons naturally grow into years
Happy and contented, they have more than enough music
Why should they busy their minds with competition?

For five hundred years footprints to and from the outside hidden and secret
Then one morning their place, located at the edge of Paradise, was uncovered.
The source of water can facilitate either those of purity and honesty, or people of weakness and shallowness
If one ever leaves, the way back could never be found.

To ask the practitioners of Daoist esoteric ways
How can you survey the dust and clamor of the outside world?
I wish I could step lightly and ascend on the wind
Fly high to find my own peach blossom paradise.

Commentary:

The viewpoints and sentiments of this poem are an important part of ancient and traditional Chinese culture.

Peaches are famous in China for being the fruit of the immortals. So with the fisherman’s early discovery of peach orchards, we know that we have entered a magical and spiritual place. Springheads and water sources are places where the water, and life itself, are pure and transparent. Peach Blossom Water Source Story is Tao Yuanming’s version of the West’s Utopia, or Garden of Eden, before the snake entered the picture.

The Chinese paradise is usually thought of as a human condition in the past, not in the future, like it is in the West. And so this poetic and ideal place is not in the future. This Chinese idyllic life includes no government or taxes, no merchants, bankers or money of any kind. There are no wars, no palaces and no corruption. The Daoist sage Laozi could have lived in, or designed, this society. In Chinese mythology the dwellings of the immortals are on imaginary island off the coast called Penglai. But this place created by Tao Yuanming is truly a human and Daoist paradise on earth, where the people can lead a life of simplicity and harmony.