I encountered the Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring when the 2008 Guangzhou Triennial was still in planning. I saw the reference of the Preface in an article introducing the Triennial's themes and structure. The name “Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring" was inserted between two themes of the Triennial. It was placed together with the phrase “flourishing ruin”. As the Triennial approached, I could not find this reference in the revised article any more. This made me go back to the original text. What I mean is that the Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring was created in a period of disunity and decline because only in such a period people would conceive such a world in the story. I would like to skip the Triennial's central topics or themes through a reading of the preface. To depart from the text of the preface also means to leave the text, to move away from it. The preface contains 321 characters (without punctuation marks) with no paragraph breaks. But I divide the text into the following twelve segments to facilitate my reading:

 

1. “During the Taiyuan era of the Jin dynasty, there was a man of Wuling who caught fish for a living. Once he was making his way up a valley stream and had lost track of how far he had gone...”[1]

 

The story happened in the Tai-yuan era of the Jin dynasty (376-396 ADE). The middle of the era can be approximately dated to 380. The poet Tao Yuanming wrote this preface in around 421, a time of decline and political conflicts. In 420 Liu Yu overthrew the Emperor Gong of Jin, Sima Dewen, and established himself as the Emperor Wu of Song in the Southern Dynasties. Three years later, young Liu Yifu became the new emperor, who was to be succeeded by Liu Yilong in two years. From the year 380 when the story began to the year 421 when Tao Yuanming wrote this preface there is about 41 years. At the age of 41, Tao Yuanming quitted his official post to retire to the countryside. “Wuling is located in Changde city in Hunan Province. Peach Blossom Spring prefecture is about 50 kilometers from Changde. The man of Wuling's was a fisherman, a quite ordinary man with an ordinary job. The sentence that “he was making his way up a valley stream” means the trip was not planned or special. The fisherman “lost track of how far he had gone” suggests that he was focusing on fishing. Being “lost track” alludes to the state of letting go part of our consciousness. Since the fisherman was concentrating on fishing, everything else remains in the realm of unconsciousness.

 

2. "...when he suddenly came upon a forest of peach trees in bloom. For several hundred paces on either bank of the stream there were no other trees to be seen, but fragrant grasses, fresh and beautiful, and falling petals whirling all around. The fisherman, astonished at such a sight, pushed ahead, hoping to see what lay beyond the forest".

 

In the passage above, the word “suddenly" as well the phrase “lost track of" in section 1, express something beyond the grasp of consciousness. Some noticeable things appears all of a sudden, but the encounter in the story happened purely by chance. The word "peach” appears for the first time in the entire preface. This "forest of peach trees" might have something to do with Peach Blossom Spring prefecture. The description “For several hundred paces on either bank of the stream there were no other trees to be seen, but fragrant grasses, fresh and beautiful, and falling petals whirling all around" suggests that since the fisherman lived in a period of chaos and decline, places he had visited might be wilderness without humans or animals. There were no places for him to fish regularly and the fish, as a common property, also diminishes. So he had to move around without specific destinations in mind. The peach blossom forest at this time and place is so concentrated, revealing the difference between prosperity and decline, yet it is not yet a boundary, just some signs, just the precursor of how closely decline approaches prosperity. In the entire preface, the character “peach” appears only in two places including the one in the title. But it has left such a strong impression on the Chinese mind. Words and phrases such as peach, peach blossoms, the Peach Blossom Spring immediately evoke the idea of another realm. It is noteworthy that the 1964 Lessons from Taoyuan (Peach Orchard)[2] also used the word peach. But like the fisherman, we were astonished by its disastrous results. The text “...hoping to see what lay beyond the forest" indicates that the fisherman had a new goal.

 

3. "When the forest ended there was a spring that fed the stream, and beyond that a hill. The hill had a small opening in it, from which there seemed to come a gleam of light. Abandoning his boat, the fisherman went through the opening. At first it was very narrow, with barely room for a person to pass, but after he had gone twenty or thirty paces, it suddenly opened out and he could see clearly.”

 

The fisherman's new goal did not seem very rewarding. The forest of peach trees ended and he reached the source of the stream, the fishing also came to an end. The character shan (hill/mountain) in the passage may have another layer of meaning. Bodies of water are essentially connected, whether they are streams, rivers, lakes, or seas. Shan can refer to high mountains or continents. Water can separate two hills, mountains or continents. The hill did not reject the visiting fisherman, neither did it embrace him. There was “a small opening in it, from which there seemed to come a gleam of light”. So the passage way might be linear or curved. It was not long because the fisherman walked only twenty or thirty paces. Section 2 mentions that the forest of peach trees stretched “several hundred paces on either bank of the stream". It might not be very large since it could be measured by pace. We know that there are many different ways to “measure” things in reality. For example, the size of things we measure by pace on an airplane might radically differ from the size of things we measure in the same way on the ground. It recalls an ancient land-shrinking technique with which “a piece of land stretching thousands of miles can be shrunk and unfolded in front of our eyes. When released, it comes back to its original size”. This reference comes from the book the Biographies of Immortals (《神仙传》or《费长房传》). According to the Biography of the Pot Master in the book, the pot master often hang an empty pot in his room. After the sunset, he would jump into the pot and nobody could see him. The account in the Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring “...the fisherman went through the opening. At first it was very narrow, with barely room for a person to pass, but after he had gone twenty or thirty paces, it suddenly opened out and he could see clearly" is reminiscent of the pot master.

In the story of the pot master, a person named Fei Changfang went into the pot following the pot master. Fei “did not feel that he was in the pot. There were celestial palaces and other buildings..." For those who came from a declining world (like the fisherman) or those who experienced the world's endless cycle of rise and fall, a place that"...suddenly opened out” revealed not an imaginary world where immortals lived, but a kind of “modernity”, a real world.

 

4. "A plain stretched before him, broad and flat, with houses and sheds dotting it, and rich fields, pretty ponds, and mulberry and bamboo around them. Paths ran north and south, east and west across the fields, and chickens and dogs could be heard from farm to farm. The men and women who passed back and forth in the midst, sowing and tilling the fields, were all dressed just like any other people, and from yellow-haired eldes to youngsters with their hair unbound, everyone seemed carefree and happy".

 

If we do not place these descriptions within the traditional framework of "Peach Blossom Spring" interpretations—although descriptions of "paradise" have always been unable to escape reference to earthly reality—if we regard these descriptions as accurate depictions of another earthly reality, then the term " other people/foreigner " becomes significant. Today we have a very clear idea about what it means. If you ask any first-time visitor (non-Euro-American) to Europe or America about his/her first impression about the place at the time when the airplane is landing, won't his/her honest answer be just like this: “A plain stretched before him, broad and flat, with houses and sheds dotting it, and rich fields, pretty ponds, and mulberry and bamboo around them. Paths ran north and south, east and west across the fields, and chickens and dogs could be heard from farm to farm”?

When he/she steps onto the land, doesn't he/she see: “The men and women who passed back and forth in the midst, sowing and tilling the fields, were all dressed just like any other people, and from yellow-haired elders to youngsters with their hair unbound, everyone seemed carefree and happy"? According to a note from Gu Wen Guan Zhi (1696), "yellow hair” is used in the Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring because elders' white hair turned yellow, and the character tiao means youngsters' unbound hair. It also notes that this was purely an ancient custom. But when the dark hair of the Chinese people turned white, how could their white hair turn yellow or golden? Yellow hair obvious means blond hair. The text “...chickens and dogs could be heard from farm to farm” might come from the book Laozi. In Chapter 80 it is stated, “(People) enjoy their food, appreciate their cloths, and find pleasure in their custom. Neighboring kingdoms are facing each other. Chickens and dogs can be heard. People won't disturb each other throughout their life". The scene in Laozi has been viewed either as a pure world in ancient times, or a backward place. But is it not true that neighboring countries are facing each other in Europe today? The scene in which “Chickens and dogs could be heard” indicates a peaceful time rather than a time of war when chickens are flying and dogs are jumping. “People won't disturb each other throughout their life” and countries can maintain their friendly relationship for eighty or ninety years, or even longer depending on the life expectancy of the people. This is a depiction of a reality in modern society, corresponding to the Russian-French philosopher Alexander Kojeve's the universal and homogeneous state or the Japanese-American Francis Fukuyama's post-historical world.

 

5. "The people, seeing the fisherman, were greatly startled and asked where he had come from. When he had answered all their questions, they invited him to return with them to their home, where they set out wine and killed a chicken to prepare a meal. As soon as the others in the village heard of his arrival, they all came to greet him".

 

When the fisherman first saw the forest of peach trees, he was astonished. Now people in the Peach Blossom Spring were greatly startled. Although they were in the same world, people who lived in the historical and post-historical worlds were still quite different. The person from the historical world had been given a few hints about the post-historical world such as "the forest of peach trees", “Where the forest ended here was a spring that fed the stream”, “The hill has a small opening in it”, “...it suddenly opened out and he could see clearly". The appearance of the fisherman startled the residents in the post-historical world. It did not matter whether he entered legally through the small opening or illegally in other ways. Today when a foreigner meets another foreigner, wouldn't their first question be just like the one that the people in the Peach Blossom Spring asked the fisherman, “Where do you come from"? The Chinese character yao（invite） in the sentence "They invited him to return with them to their home, where they set out wine and killed a chicken to prepare a meal" means to want or to invite. The scene here revealed the direct contact of the first-time visitor with foreign individuals after he/she arrived in the foreign country by a plane. What he/she saw shifted from macro view of well-governed and prosperous society to an ordinary family scene. For someone coming from a declining age or historical world, the banquet with wine and chicken indicates that it was a land of abundance and people were friendly and generous.

 

6. “They told him that some generations in the past their people had fled from the troubled times of the Qin dynasty and had come with their wives and children and fellow villagers to this secluded place. They had never ventured out into the world again, and hence in time had come to be completely cut off from other people."

 

"Jue jing (secluded place)" has usually been interpreted as a place isolated from social realities. Shall we interpret it as "the end of history"? Did the sentence “They had never ventured out into the world again” suggest the possibility of starting anew after the end of history? But the residents of the Peach Spring Blossom never ventured out into the world again, “and hence in time had come to be completely cut off from other people". Some parts of history had ended, other parts continued, moving toward their end unconsciously. “Other people” still existed, and two parts of history would co-exist in the long term. If the entire history of the mankind had ended, there would not be “other people” any more.

 

7. “They asked him what dynasty was ruling at present–they had not even heard of the Han dynasty, to say nothing of the Wei and Jin dynasties that succeeded it. The fisherman replied to each of their questions to the best of his knowledge, and everyone sighed with wonder. The other villagers invited the fisherman to visit their homes as well, each setting out wine and food for him.”

 

Although the post-historical world grew out of the historical world–“They told him that some generations in the past their people had fled from the troubled times of the Qin dynasty”, or Hegel considered the Battle of Jena to be the end of the history–, the question of "what dynasty was ruling at present” was irrelevant to people in the post-historical world because they were tired of political changes as well as the idea of fighting for their nation at the cost of their life. What they would do is to sigh with wonder at the dinner table.

We cannot discuss the universal and homogeneous state and the post-historical world without mentioning Nietzsche's notion of the last man, who is “neither rich nor poor, neither ruler nor been ruled by others. In the world of the last men, everybody is equal and content, everybody takes care of himself/herself”. Nietzsche wrote in his unfinished draft, “The last man: a kind of Chinese people.”

Out of the rise-decline cycle, the residents in the Peach Blossom Spring resemble people in the universal and homogeneous states and in the post-historical world. The most important similarity is that they have reached their final destination.

 

8. "Thus he remained for several days before taking his leave. One of the villagers said to him, 'I trust you won't tell the people on the outside about this.’”

 

Why did the fisherman want to go back? Wasn't he received warmly in the Peach Blossom Spring? The fisherman stands on the boundary between Peach Blossom Spring and the outside world, hesitating and conflicting. When the time for history to end came, he was still thinking about history, reversing his relationship with reality. People in the Peach Blossom Spring also had a conflicted attitude toward the fisherman. “I trust you won't tell the people on the outside about this” can also mean “you will definitely tell them" or “you should tell them”. We all talk, and words spread quickly. Moreover, the post-historical world is bound to affect the historical world. The fisherman wished that he could stay in both worlds at the same time. But it proved impossible. There are three places where the word wai-ren (other people, outside-people) appears. “The men and women...were all dressed just like any other people” refers to the imagined and idealized people who lived in another place outside the fisherman's world. “They had never ventured out into the world again, and hence in time had come to be completely cut off from other people” suggests that since people in the Peach Spring Blossom had ended their history well in advance they stayed outside of the outside people. “I trust you won't tell the people on the outside about this” shows that people in the Peach Blossom Spring viewed the fisherman as a member of their community because the mission of the post-historical people is to embrace people from the historical world. In this sense, the fisherman became an outsider in both worlds. From this point the text in the preface provides no further information about the Peach Blossom Spring.

 

9. "After the fisherman had made his way out of the place, he found his boat and followed the route he had taken earlier, taking care to note the places that he passed.”

 

The fisherman must follow the same route that he had taken when he came in because he found his boat. There was only one opening serving as both the entrance and the exit,  just as the universal and homogeneous state or the post-historical world leaves an opening. Why didn't the fisherman choose to stay? Didn't he want to live in a prosperous world at the time of chaos and decline? Didn't he know that changes in history would lead unconsciously to a universal and homogeneous state exactly like the Peach Blossom Spring where “people had not even heard of the Han dynasty, to say nothing of the Wei and Qin dynasty that succeeded it.” The fisherman arrived unconsciously in this universal and homogenous world in advance through the small opening, symbolic of unconsciousness. Did his decision to leave make people unhappy about the universal and homogeneous world although everybody there was very happy? The fisherman also did not know that unhappiness is a mission. He only knew that he should carefully mark the route because he could also have the experience that “it suddenly opened out and he could see clearly” on his way back.

 

10. “When he reached the prefectural town, he went to call on the governor and reported what had happened. The governor immediately dispatched men to go with him to look for the place, but though he tried to locate the spots that he had taken note of earlier, in the end he became confused and could not find the way again.”

 

The poet Tao Yuanming gave a very detailed account of the fisherman's journey to the Peach Blossom Spring because it was rather an unconscious experience. But he treated the fisherman's return rather briefly. After the fisherman discovered the “last man”, he himself assumed some qualities of the last man. He shrank the big world and brought back his good news that “we had discovered a happy state.” The “governor” represented ruling powers and bureaucrats. According to the text, the fisherman reported what had happened. But we never know what exactly he reported or what exactly he discovered. Did he find modern Western society or the living Qin people? Did he find the universal and homogeneous state or the last man in the post-historical world? In general, these concepts intertwine. Some overlap. Some contradict each other. But we are certain about one thing: although he came back to the world of revolution, the fisherman did not want to be a illegitimate revolutionary. He still went to the prefectural town and called on the governor to obtain legitimacy. He still acted like an obedient slave and the governor, an overbearing master. It is exactly because of this mode of relationship that the opening to a possible world or another reality closed spontaneously.

 

11. "Liu Ziji of Nanyang, a gentleman-recluse of lofty ideals, heard the story and began delightedly making plans to go there. But he could not carry them out, soon he fell sick and died.”

 

The section on recluses in the Book of the Jin Dynasty contains a passage entitled the Biography of Liu Linzi: “Liu Linzi, alias Ziji, native of Nanyang. He came from a prestigious family of officials and scholars, be of Liu Chen's kinsmen...he was interested in unworldly affairs. He once gathered herbal medicines in the Heng Mountain and forgot how far he had gone. He saw a rapid. On its south side were two stone granaries. One was open and the other was shut. But he could not pass the rapid because it was too deep and wide. When he wanted to go back he got lost. After he consulted a woodcutter-archer, he was able to go back home. It was said that the granaries were filled with magical medicines and other things. So Liu Linzi became even more eager to look for them. But he couldn't find it in the end..." The experience of Liu Linzi and that of the fisherman in the Peach Blossom Spring are rather similar, especially in that Liu Linzi's guide the woodcutter-archer and the fisherman were both ordinary people. But Tao Yuanming changed the story in the Biography of Liu Linzi in three places. He used Liu's alias Ziji instead of his given name Linzi. Like many other recluses in the Wei and Jin dynasties Liu Linzi was a seeker of magical medicinal herbs. But in the story of the Peach Blossom Spring Liu Ziji was looking for another world. According to the Biography of Liu linzi, he had a natural death. But Tao Yuanming changed it to “...but he could not carry them out, soon he fell sick and died.” The Chinese character “xun” for soon also means to seek. His illness therefore was caused directly by his search, which alerts people of the risk in their attempt to find an ultimate or happy solution. It was only when Tao Yuanming turned forty that he quitted his official position and retired to the country side. Liu Ziji was once a scholar-official. The relationship between being an official and being a recluse is that an official was a recluse participating in the public life, and a recluse was a hidden official.

 

12. "Since then there have been no more 'seekers of the ford.’”

 

There were no more people who consciously look for the Peach Blossom Spring. Even the door for unintended visits closed because all conscious questions originated inside the door. Tao Yuanming was known as the father of all scholar-recluse poets in China. He opened the door and then closed it himself. What he left behind is an empty stereotype of the “scholar-recluse”, which was used for more than a thousand years (from the end of the Jin dynasty to 1648). It is only in the Qing dynasty that the term “scholar-recluse" was replaced by “left-behind" in the Historical Draft of the Qing Dynasty. Left-behinds refer to those Ming loyalists who could not adapt to the altered environment in the Qing dynasty. In the historical world where prosperity and decline alternate, the idea of being a “scholar-recluse” have been more or less “encouraged”, although we still have many reasons to question things hidden in the “garden”, in the “countryside”, or in the “Peach Blossom Spring”.

 

2008.08.08



[1] The translation is based on the version translated by Burton Watson, "Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring." In the Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).
[2] Lessons from Taoyuan (Peach Orchard) was written as a report by Wang Guangmei based on his experience of the Socialist education movement with the Taoyuan Team in Hebei's rural area during 1963-1964. It triggered severe class and political struggles in China.

I encountered the Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring when the 2008 Guangzhou Triennial was still in planning. I saw the reference of the Preface in an article introducing the Triennial's themes and structure. The name “Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring" was inserted between two themes of the Triennial. It was placed together with the phrase “flourishing ruin”. As the Triennial approached, I could not find this reference in the revised article any more. This made me go back to the original text. What I mean is that the Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring was created in a period of disunity and decline because only in such a period people would conceive such a world in the story. I would like to skip the Triennial's central topics or themes through a reading of the preface. To depart from the text of the preface also means to leave the text, to move away from it. The preface contains 321 characters (without punctuation marks) with no paragraph breaks. But I divide the text into the following twelve segments to facilitate my reading:

 

1. “During the Taiyuan era of the Jin dynasty, there was a man of Wuling who caught fish for a living. Once he was making his way up a valley stream and had lost track of how far he had gone...”[1]

 

The story happened in the Tai-yuan era of the Jin dynasty (376-396 ADE). The middle of the era can be approximately dated to 380. The poet Tao Yuanming wrote this preface in around 421, a time of decline and political conflicts. In 420 Liu Yu overthrew the Emperor Gong of Jin, Sima Dewen, and established himself as the Emperor Wu of Song in the Southern Dynasties. Three years later, young Liu Yifu became the new emperor, who was to be succeeded by Liu Yilong in two years. From the year 380 when the story began to the year 421 when Tao Yuanming wrote this preface there is about 41 years. At the age of 41, Tao Yuanming quitted his official post to retire to the countryside. “Wuling is located in Changde city in Hunan Province. Peach Blossom Spring prefecture is about 50 kilometers from Changde. The man of Wuling's was a fisherman, a quite ordinary man with an ordinary job. The sentence that “he was making his way up a valley stream” means the trip was not planned or special. The fisherman “lost track of how far he had gone” suggests that he was focusing on fishing. Being “lost track” alludes to the state of letting go part of our consciousness. Since the fisherman was concentrating on fishing, everything else remains in the realm of unconsciousness.

 

2. "...when he suddenly came upon a forest of peach trees in bloom. For several hundred paces on either bank of the stream there were no other trees to be seen, but fragrant grasses, fresh and beautiful, and falling petals whirling all around. The fisherman, astonished at such a sight, pushed ahead, hoping to see what lay beyond the forest".

 

In the passage above, the word “suddenly" as well the phrase “lost track of" in section 1, express something beyond the grasp of consciousness. Some noticeable things appears all of a sudden, but the encounter in the story happened purely by chance. The word "peach” appears for the first time in the entire preface. This "forest of peach trees" might have something to do with Peach Blossom Spring prefecture. The description “For several hundred paces on either bank of the stream there were no other trees to be seen, but fragrant grasses, fresh and beautiful, and falling petals whirling all around" suggests that since the fisherman lived in a period of chaos and decline, places he had visited might be wilderness without humans or animals. There were no places for him to fish regularly and the fish, as a common property, also diminishes. So he had to move around without specific destinations in mind. The peach blossom forest at this time and place is so concentrated, revealing the difference between prosperity and decline, yet it is not yet a boundary, just some signs, just the precursor of how closely decline approaches prosperity. In the entire preface, the character “peach” appears only in two places including the one in the title. But it has left such a strong impression on the Chinese mind. Words and phrases such as peach, peach blossoms, the Peach Blossom Spring immediately evoke the idea of another realm. It is noteworthy that the 1964 Lessons from Taoyuan (Peach Orchard)[2] also used the word peach. But like the fisherman, we were astonished by its disastrous results. The text “...hoping to see what lay beyond the forest" indicates that the fisherman had a new goal.

 

3. "When the forest ended there was a spring that fed the stream, and beyond that a hill. The hill had a small opening in it, from which there seemed to come a gleam of light. Abandoning his boat, the fisherman went through the opening. At first it was very narrow, with barely room for a person to pass, but after he had gone twenty or thirty paces, it suddenly opened out and he could see clearly.”

 

The fisherman's new goal did not seem very rewarding. The forest of peach trees ended and he reached the source of the stream, the fishing also came to an end. The character shan (hill/mountain) in the passage may have another layer of meaning. Bodies of water are essentially connected, whether they are streams, rivers, lakes, or seas. Shan can refer to high mountains or continents. Water can separate two hills, mountains or continents. The hill did not reject the visiting fisherman, neither did it embrace him. There was “a small opening in it, from which there seemed to come a gleam of light”. So the passage way might be linear or curved. It was not long because the fisherman walked only twenty or thirty paces. Section 2 mentions that the forest of peach trees stretched “several hundred paces on either bank of the stream". It might not be very large since it could be measured by pace. We know that there are many different ways to “measure” things in reality. For example, the size of things we measure by pace on an airplane might radically differ from the size of things we measure in the same way on the ground. It recalls an ancient land-shrinking technique with which “a piece of land stretching thousands of miles can be shrunk and unfolded in front of our eyes. When released, it comes back to its original size”. This reference comes from the book the Biographies of Immortals (《神仙传》or《费长房传》). According to the Biography of the Pot Master in the book, the pot master often hang an empty pot in his room. After the sunset, he would jump into the pot and nobody could see him. The account in the Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring “...the fisherman went through the opening. At first it was very narrow, with barely room for a person to pass, but after he had gone twenty or thirty paces, it suddenly opened out and he could see clearly" is reminiscent of the pot master.

In the story of the pot master, a person named Fei Changfang went into the pot following the pot master. Fei “did not feel that he was in the pot. There were celestial palaces and other buildings..." For those who came from a declining world (like the fisherman) or those who experienced the world's endless cycle of rise and fall, a place that"...suddenly opened out” revealed not an imaginary world where immortals lived, but a kind of “modernity”, a real world.

 

4. "A plain stretched before him, broad and flat, with houses and sheds dotting it, and rich fields, pretty ponds, and mulberry and bamboo around them. Paths ran north and south, east and west across the fields, and chickens and dogs could be heard from farm to farm. The men and women who passed back and forth in the midst, sowing and tilling the fields, were all dressed just like any other people, and from yellow-haired eldes to youngsters with their hair unbound, everyone seemed carefree and happy".

 

If we do not place these descriptions within the traditional framework of "Peach Blossom Spring" interpretations—although descriptions of "paradise" have always been unable to escape reference to earthly reality—if we regard these descriptions as accurate depictions of another earthly reality, then the term " other people/foreigner " becomes significant. Today we have a very clear idea about what it means. If you ask any first-time visitor (non-Euro-American) to Europe or America about his/her first impression about the place at the time when the airplane is landing, won't his/her honest answer be just like this: “A plain stretched before him, broad and flat, with houses and sheds dotting it, and rich fields, pretty ponds, and mulberry and bamboo around them. Paths ran north and south, east and west across the fields, and chickens and dogs could be heard from farm to farm”?

When he/she steps onto the land, doesn't he/she see: “The men and women who passed back and forth in the midst, sowing and tilling the fields, were all dressed just like any other people, and from yellow-haired elders to youngsters with their hair unbound, everyone seemed carefree and happy"? According to a note from Gu Wen Guan Zhi (1696), "yellow hair” is used in the Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring because elders' white hair turned yellow, and the character tiao means youngsters' unbound hair. It also notes that this was purely an ancient custom. But when the dark hair of the Chinese people turned white, how could their white hair turn yellow or golden? Yellow hair obvious means blond hair. The text “...chickens and dogs could be heard from farm to farm” might come from the book Laozi. In Chapter 80 it is stated, “(People) enjoy their food, appreciate their cloths, and find pleasure in their custom. Neighboring kingdoms are facing each other. Chickens and dogs can be heard. People won't disturb each other throughout their life". The scene in Laozi has been viewed either as a pure world in ancient times, or a backward place. But is it not true that neighboring countries are facing each other in Europe today? The scene in which “Chickens and dogs could be heard” indicates a peaceful time rather than a time of war when chickens are flying and dogs are jumping. “People won't disturb each other throughout their life” and countries can maintain their friendly relationship for eighty or ninety years, or even longer depending on the life expectancy of the people. This is a depiction of a reality in modern society, corresponding to the Russian-French philosopher Alexander Kojeve's the universal and homogeneous state or the Japanese-American Francis Fukuyama's post-historical world.

 

5. "The people, seeing the fisherman, were greatly startled and asked where he had come from. When he had answered all their questions, they invited him to return with them to their home, where they set out wine and killed a chicken to prepare a meal. As soon as the others in the village heard of his arrival, they all came to greet him".

 

When the fisherman first saw the forest of peach trees, he was astonished. Now people in the Peach Blossom Spring were greatly startled. Although they were in the same world, people who lived in the historical and post-historical worlds were still quite different. The person from the historical world had been given a few hints about the post-historical world such as "the forest of peach trees", “Where the forest ended here was a spring that fed the stream”, “The hill has a small opening in it”, “...it suddenly opened out and he could see clearly". The appearance of the fisherman startled the residents in the post-historical world. It did not matter whether he entered legally through the small opening or illegally in other ways. Today when a foreigner meets another foreigner, wouldn't their first question be just like the one that the people in the Peach Blossom Spring asked the fisherman, “Where do you come from"? The Chinese character yao（invite） in the sentence "They invited him to return with them to their home, where they set out wine and killed a chicken to prepare a meal" means to want or to invite. The scene here revealed the direct contact of the first-time visitor with foreign individuals after he/she arrived in the foreign country by a plane. What he/she saw shifted from macro view of well-governed and prosperous society to an ordinary family scene. For someone coming from a declining age or historical world, the banquet with wine and chicken indicates that it was a land of abundance and people were friendly and generous.

 

6. “They told him that some generations in the past their people had fled from the troubled times of the Qin dynasty and had come with their wives and children and fellow villagers to this secluded place. They had never ventured out into the world again, and hence in time had come to be completely cut off from other people."

 

"Jue jing (secluded place)" has usually been interpreted as a place isolated from social realities. Shall we interpret it as "the end of history"? Did the sentence “They had never ventured out into the world again” suggest the possibility of starting anew after the end of history? But the residents of the Peach Spring Blossom never ventured out into the world again, “and hence in time had come to be completely cut off from other people". Some parts of history had ended, other parts continued, moving toward their end unconsciously. “Other people” still existed, and two parts of history would co-exist in the long term. If the entire history of the mankind had ended, there would not be “other people” any more.

 

7. “They asked him what dynasty was ruling at present–they had not even heard of the Han dynasty, to say nothing of the Wei and Jin dynasties that succeeded it. The fisherman replied to each of their questions to the best of his knowledge, and everyone sighed with wonder. The other villagers invited the fisherman to visit their homes as well, each setting out wine and food for him.”

 

Although the post-historical world grew out of the historical world–“They told him that some generations in the past their people had fled from the troubled times of the Qin dynasty”, or Hegel considered the Battle of Jena to be the end of the history–, the question of "what dynasty was ruling at present” was irrelevant to people in the post-historical world because they were tired of political changes as well as the idea of fighting for their nation at the cost of their life. What they would do is to sigh with wonder at the dinner table.

We cannot discuss the universal and homogeneous state and the post-historical world without mentioning Nietzsche's notion of the last man, who is “neither rich nor poor, neither ruler nor been ruled by others. In the world of the last men, everybody is equal and content, everybody takes care of himself/herself”. Nietzsche wrote in his unfinished draft, “The last man: a kind of Chinese people.”

Out of the rise-decline cycle, the residents in the Peach Blossom Spring resemble people in the universal and homogeneous states and in the post-historical world. The most important similarity is that they have reached their final destination.

 

8. "Thus he remained for several days before taking his leave. One of the villagers said to him, 'I trust you won't tell the people on the outside about this.’”

 

Why did the fisherman want to go back? Wasn't he received warmly in the Peach Blossom Spring? The fisherman stands on the boundary between Peach Blossom Spring and the outside world, hesitating and conflicting. When the time for history to end came, he was still thinking about history, reversing his relationship with reality. People in the Peach Blossom Spring also had a conflicted attitude toward the fisherman. “I trust you won't tell the people on the outside about this” can also mean “you will definitely tell them" or “you should tell them”. We all talk, and words spread quickly. Moreover, the post-historical world is bound to affect the historical world. The fisherman wished that he could stay in both worlds at the same time. But it proved impossible. There are three places where the word wai-ren (other people, outside-people) appears. “The men and women...were all dressed just like any other people” refers to the imagined and idealized people who lived in another place outside the fisherman's world. “They had never ventured out into the world again, and hence in time had come to be completely cut off from other people” suggests that since people in the Peach Spring Blossom had ended their history well in advance they stayed outside of the outside people. “I trust you won't tell the people on the outside about this” shows that people in the Peach Blossom Spring viewed the fisherman as a member of their community because the mission of the post-historical people is to embrace people from the historical world. In this sense, the fisherman became an outsider in both worlds. From this point the text in the preface provides no further information about the Peach Blossom Spring.

 

9. "After the fisherman had made his way out of the place, he found his boat and followed the route he had taken earlier, taking care to note the places that he passed.”

 

The fisherman must follow the same route that he had taken when he came in because he found his boat. There was only one opening serving as both the entrance and the exit,  just as the universal and homogeneous state or the post-historical world leaves an opening. Why didn't the fisherman choose to stay? Didn't he want to live in a prosperous world at the time of chaos and decline? Didn't he know that changes in history would lead unconsciously to a universal and homogeneous state exactly like the Peach Blossom Spring where “people had not even heard of the Han dynasty, to say nothing of the Wei and Qin dynasty that succeeded it.” The fisherman arrived unconsciously in this universal and homogenous world in advance through the small opening, symbolic of unconsciousness. Did his decision to leave make people unhappy about the universal and homogeneous world although everybody there was very happy? The fisherman also did not know that unhappiness is a mission. He only knew that he should carefully mark the route because he could also have the experience that “it suddenly opened out and he could see clearly” on his way back.

 

10. “When he reached the prefectural town, he went to call on the governor and reported what had happened. The governor immediately dispatched men to go with him to look for the place, but though he tried to locate the spots that he had taken note of earlier, in the end he became confused and could not find the way again.”

 

The poet Tao Yuanming gave a very detailed account of the fisherman's journey to the Peach Blossom Spring because it was rather an unconscious experience. But he treated the fisherman's return rather briefly. After the fisherman discovered the “last man”, he himself assumed some qualities of the last man. He shrank the big world and brought back his good news that “we had discovered a happy state.” The “governor” represented ruling powers and bureaucrats. According to the text, the fisherman reported what had happened. But we never know what exactly he reported or what exactly he discovered. Did he find modern Western society or the living Qin people? Did he find the universal and homogeneous state or the last man in the post-historical world? In general, these concepts intertwine. Some overlap. Some contradict each other. But we are certain about one thing: although he came back to the world of revolution, the fisherman did not want to be a illegitimate revolutionary. He still went to the prefectural town and called on the governor to obtain legitimacy. He still acted like an obedient slave and the governor, an overbearing master. It is exactly because of this mode of relationship that the opening to a possible world or another reality closed spontaneously.

 

11. "Liu Ziji of Nanyang, a gentleman-recluse of lofty ideals, heard the story and began delightedly making plans to go there. But he could not carry them out, soon he fell sick and died.”

 

The section on recluses in the Book of the Jin Dynasty contains a passage entitled the Biography of Liu Linzi: “Liu Linzi, alias Ziji, native of Nanyang. He came from a prestigious family of officials and scholars, be of Liu Chen's kinsmen...he was interested in unworldly affairs. He once gathered herbal medicines in the Heng Mountain and forgot how far he had gone. He saw a rapid. On its south side were two stone granaries. One was open and the other was shut. But he could not pass the rapid because it was too deep and wide. When he wanted to go back he got lost. After he consulted a woodcutter-archer, he was able to go back home. It was said that the granaries were filled with magical medicines and other things. So Liu Linzi became even more eager to look for them. But he couldn't find it in the end..." The experience of Liu Linzi and that of the fisherman in the Peach Blossom Spring are rather similar, especially in that Liu Linzi's guide the woodcutter-archer and the fisherman were both ordinary people. But Tao Yuanming changed the story in the Biography of Liu Linzi in three places. He used Liu's alias Ziji instead of his given name Linzi. Like many other recluses in the Wei and Jin dynasties Liu Linzi was a seeker of magical medicinal herbs. But in the story of the Peach Blossom Spring Liu Ziji was looking for another world. According to the Biography of Liu linzi, he had a natural death. But Tao Yuanming changed it to “...but he could not carry them out, soon he fell sick and died.” The Chinese character “xun” for soon also means to seek. His illness therefore was caused directly by his search, which alerts people of the risk in their attempt to find an ultimate or happy solution. It was only when Tao Yuanming turned forty that he quitted his official position and retired to the country side. Liu Ziji was once a scholar-official. The relationship between being an official and being a recluse is that an official was a recluse participating in the public life, and a recluse was a hidden official.

 

12. "Since then there have been no more 'seekers of the ford.’”

 

There were no more people who consciously look for the Peach Blossom Spring. Even the door for unintended visits closed because all conscious questions originated inside the door. Tao Yuanming was known as the father of all scholar-recluse poets in China. He opened the door and then closed it himself. What he left behind is an empty stereotype of the “scholar-recluse”, which was used for more than a thousand years (from the end of the Jin dynasty to 1648). It is only in the Qing dynasty that the term “scholar-recluse" was replaced by “left-behind" in the Historical Draft of the Qing Dynasty. Left-behinds refer to those Ming loyalists who could not adapt to the altered environment in the Qing dynasty. In the historical world where prosperity and decline alternate, the idea of being a “scholar-recluse” have been more or less “encouraged”, although we still have many reasons to question things hidden in the “garden”, in the “countryside”, or in the “Peach Blossom Spring”.

 

2008.08.08



[1] The translation is based on the version translated by Burton Watson, "Preface to the Poem on the Peach Blossom Spring." In the Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).
[2] Lessons from Taoyuan (Peach Orchard) was written as a report by Wang Guangmei based on his experience of the Socialist education movement with the Taoyuan Team in Hebei's rural area during 1963-1964. It triggered severe class and political struggles in China.