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Commentary on Body, Shadow, and Spirit
The Body, Shadow, and Spirit is a series of five-character-per-line poems. The first poem features the Body addressing the Shadow: while the physical forms of heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers endure forever, and grass and trees can regenerate even after withering, the human body is destined to die and vanish. Therefore, one should seize…
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Body, Shadow, and Spirit (3 of 3)
The Spirit Explains The great Creator acts without partiality;The myriad principles of the universe are clearly manifested.Of the Three Powers (Heaven, Earth, and Man),Is it not because of me, the Spirit, that humanity exists?Though I am a different entity from you two,We are bound together as long as we live.Since our fates are intertwined,How…
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Body, Shadow, and Spirit (1 of 3)
This poem is the first in a famous three-poem series where Tao Yuanming personifies three aspects of human existence: the physical Body, the Shadow, and the Spirit. This structure is deeply influenced by Buddhist and Daoist philosophical debates of the Wei-Jin period regarding the nature of the soul and the afterlife.
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Miscellaneous Poems (2 of 12)
The white sun sinks into the western river;The pale moon rises over the eastern ridge.For ten thousand miles, its boundless radiance gleams;Vast and clear, a brilliant expanse fills the sky.The wind sweeps through the doors and windows;In the dead of night, my pillow and mat grow cold.Sensing the changing air, I realize the seasons…