Peach Blossom Image and its Peaceful Seclusion Connotation in Classical Chinese Poetry

The peach blossom is a prevailing and varied image in classical Chinese poetry. This paper first introduces how peach blossoms entered the poets’ aesthetic perspective. As poetry genre gradually developed, the metaphorical connotations of peach blossom image used in poetry were enriched, such as beauty, springtime, and yinyi 隱逸, peaceful seclusion. This paper focuses on the peach blossom image and its peaceful seclusion connotation, for peaceful seclusion is one of the most significant themes of classical Chinese poetry, while the connection between the peach blossom image and peaceful seclusion is rarely discussed. This paper also seeks how the peach blossom image was endowed with a peaceful seclusion connotation. Moreover, poets use peach blossom image and its peaceful seclusion connotation in their works in different ways, which we can see as a reflection of the spirit of each era. While untangling the threads of peach blossom image and its peaceful seclusion meaning in poetry, mainly from ancient times to the Song dynasty, this paper explores the unique characteristics of poetic practice and cultural norms of specific time periods.

1. The Rise of the Aesthetic Perspective to Peach Blossom       

The earliest use of peach blossom image in Chinese poetry is in “Tao yao” 桃夭 (Mao 6):

桃之夭夭     Buxom is the peach-tree;
灼灼其華     How its flowers blaze!
之子於歸     Our lady going home
宜其室家     Brings good to family and house.

桃之夭夭     Buxom is the peach-tree;
有蕡其實     How its fruit swells!
之子於歸     Our lady going home
宜其家室     Brings good to family and house.

桃之夭夭     Buxom is the peach-tree;
其葉蓁蓁     How thick its leaves!
之子於歸     Our lady going home
宜其家人     Brings good to the people of her house.

The first four lines use the tender beauty of peach blossoms as a metaphor for feminine beauty, alluding to a marriage blessed with love. The next eight lines link the ripe fruit and lush leaves of the peach tree with fertility worship and the belief that more children bring greater fortune. “Tao yao” thus builds a prototype of peach blossom image with the meaning of happy marriage and beauty in Chinese poetry. Prior to the time when early poetry began to give aesthetic treatments of specific plants, the image of peach trees mainly appeared listed together with other plants. For example, in Liu Che’s 劉徹 (156-87 BCE) “Bailiang Poem” (Bailiang shi柏梁詩): “Loquats, oranges, chestnuts, peaches, plums, and apricots” 枇杷橘栗桃李梅; in “The Crok Crows” (Jiming 雞鳴): “A peach tree sits atop an open well, a plum tree grows beside it” 桃生露井上, 李樹生桃傍, and in Ruan Ji’s 阮籍 (210-263) “Poem of Expression” (Yonghuai shi 詠懷詩): “A path forms under those fine trees, the peaches and plums in East Garden” 嘉樹下成蹊, 東園桃與李. This use of peach trees in conjunction with other plant images was seen most commonly in the “peach and plum” 桃李 pairing, not only because the two trees blossom at similar times of year, but also due to the moral implications of their pairing. In “Biography of General Lee” 李將軍列傳of Records of the Grand Historian 史記, Sima Qian 司馬遷 (145-ca. 86 BCE) praised Li Guang’s 李廣 (d. 119 BCE) prudent words and shrewd actions with the phrase “the peach tree and the plum tree say nothing, yet still a path forms beneath them” 桃李不言, 下自成蹊. This saying, later immortalized as an idiom, was frequently alluded to in poetry. Thus, the line “in the southern lands lives a beauty, whose features are like the peach and the plum” 南國有佳人，容華若桃李 suggests not only an attractive countenance, but also a noble heart. While “see those peaches and plums; their splendor fades quickly” 視彼桃李花，誰能久熒熒 is melancholy about spring’s fleeting beauty, and, more than that, a lamentation of moral decrepitude. However, these lines did not contain specific descriptions of the peach blossoms, which is to say that peach blossoms were not yet considered an independent subject of aesthetic analysis. With the sole exception of “Tao Yao” (Mao 6) mentioned above, it was until Xie Lingyun’s 謝靈運 (385-433) “Song of Bitterness” (Beizai xing 悲哉行) that peach blossoms finally began to unfurl their graceful petals in poetry:

差池燕始飛     Baby swallows make their first clumsy flights;
夭嫋桃始榮     young peach saplings begin to show their splendor.
灼灼桃悅色     The joyful brilliance of the peach blossoms
飛飛燕弄聲     is accompanied by the sound of swallows in flight.

Xie Lingyun depicted the color, the shape of peach blossoms as well as the pleasure of watching the scene to present a vivid spring. Poets like Xie, became aesthetically aware of peach blossoms, and the peach image was no longer simply a moral allusion. The unique features of peach blossoms found expression in poems. The aesthetic awareness of the plants image is not an accident, but a cultural norm in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, because of poets’ practice on landscape poetry. “Landscape first became a conspicuous element in literature and the arts during the Southern Dynasties.” The poets of the Northern and Southern Dynasties had become quite proficient at describing natural scenery. Some used red peach blossoms and green willow branches to symbolize springtime, such as in Wu Jizhi’s 伍緝之 (fl. mid fifth century) “Fragrances of Spring” (Chunfang shi春芳詩): “The peaches and willows begin to show their splendor; red and green shines on the wilderness” 桃柳發葇榮，丹綠粲郊邑 . Others went beyond simple descriptions of springtime scenes and used peach blossoms to evoke certain emotions, such as in Bao Zhao’s鮑照 (414-466) “A Difficult Road to Travel” (Ni xinglunan 擬行路難):

中庭五株桃              Five peach trees in the center courtyard;
一株先作花             one tree blossoms before the rest.
陽春妖冶二三月     On a late spring day with the sun shining titillatingly,
從風簸蕩落西家     [some blossoms], carried by the wind, fall into the western chamber.
西家思婦見悲惋     The lady of the chamber, deep in thought, sees them and grieves.
零淚沾衣撫心嘆     Her tears soak her clothing as she covers her heart and sighs.

Still others, through purely landscape descriptions, hinted at the peaceful seclusion ideal, as in another work by Bao Zhao, “A Few Lines for Minister Xie Zhuang” (Yu Xieshangshu Zhuang sanlianju 與謝尚書莊三連句) :

霞輝兮澗朗     The dawn light is dazzling, the river shines brightly,
日靜兮川澄      the sun’s rays are peaceful, the water is clear.
風輕桃欲開      The wind blows lightly through the budding peach trees,
露重蘭未勝      the dew sits heavily on the orchids.
水光溢兮松霧動     The water sparkles, pines sway in the mist,
山煙疊兮石露凝     clouds pile up over the mountains, dew condenses on the rocks.
掩映晨物彩      The whole world reflects the splendor of daybreak,
連綿夕羽興      the birds do not cease their flight at dusk.

Therefore, the peach blossom image changed from merely a plant in juxtaposition into a fully independent image that was widely used in later poems. Only when the peach blossom image is distinguished, appreciated, seen as an aesthetic object by poets, can we have the following discussions of the connotations of the image.

2.From Legends to the Peaceful Seclusion Connotation

After peach blossom entered poets’ aesthetic perspective, we can see practice that poets make to use the peach blossom image. The first direct, unadulterated ode to peach trees can be seen in Ren Fang’s 任昉 (460-508) “Ode to the Peach Tree Beside the Pond” 詠池邊桃詩, which had already shared a myth color:

已謝西王苑      I say goodbye to the Queen Mother of the West,
復揖綏山枝      I bid farewell to Sui Mountain.
聊逢賞者愛      I happen upon someo ne who knows how to appreciate me,
棲趾傍蓮池      so I rest beside the lotus-covered pond.
開紅春灼灼      In spring the red blossoms bloom brilliantly;
結實夏離離      in summer the fruits grow ripe and plump.

In this poem, Ren alluded to the folk legend of Ge You’s pilgrimage to Sui Mountain, which can be traced back to Liexian zhuan 列仙傳 (Collected Biographies of Immortals):

Ge You was a member of the Qiang people. During the reign of King Cheng of Zhou, he enjoyed carving wooden sheep and selling them. One day, he rode a sheep into Western Shu. The lords of Shu and their officials followed him onto Sui Mountain. None who followed him returned; they all became Immortals. For this reason, there is a folk proverb that goes, “Just a single peach from Sui Mountain is enough to achieve greatness, if not immortality.”

葛由者，羌人也。周成王時，好刻木羊賣之。一旦，騎羊而入西蜀。蜀中王侯貴人追上綏山，隨之者不復還，皆得仙道。故里諺曰：“得綏山一桃，雖不得仙，亦足亦豪。”

It is worth noting that while peaches are not part of the original version of the tale, the peaches appear in the corresponding folk proverb—the people of that time had already begun to consciously associate peaches with immortality. This was not a rash, makeshift embellishment, but rather a lasting development in the collective unconscious illustrated in many other legends. For instance, “Tang wen” 湯問 in the Liezi 列子 writes that “(Kua Fu) cast aside his cane, and wherever touched the fat of his flesh, the peach forest grew and spread to cover thousands of li” 棄其杖, 屍膏肉所浸, 生鄧(桃)林, 鄧林彌廣數千里焉. Another early text, “Strategies of Qi” 齊策 in Strategies of the Warring States (Zhanguo ce戰國策) records that:

In the East Sea lies Dushuo Mountain. Atop the mountain is an enormous peach tree, whose roots extend three thousand li. Between the lower branches on the tree’s northeast side is what is known as the Gate of Ghosts, through which all ghosts come and go. Above the gate are two gods, one is called Tuyu and the other Yulei, and they are responsible for governing evil ghosts. For this reason, the people of the world carve figures from peach wood, paint on them the faces of Tuyu and Yulei, and place the figuresover their doors during the first month of the year to ward off evil spirits. Because Tuyu and Yulei both reside in theEastern Sea, these peach carvings are said to come from the eastern lands.

東海中，有山名曰度朔。上有大桃，屈盤三千里，其卑枝間東北曰鬼門，萬鬼所由往來也。上有二神人，一曰荼與，一曰鬱雷，主治害鬼。故使世人刻此桃梗，畫荼與與鬱雷首，正歲以置門戶，辟號之門。荼與、鬱雷，皆在東海中，故曰東國之桃梗也。

Although these legends seem preposterous, they provide a clear record of the unique position peaches have enjoyed in the public psyche since time immemorial. To ancient people, peaches seemed to possess a miraculous aura—they were endowed with divine power and could keep evil and disaster at bay. As the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski points out: “Myth is a warrant, a charter, and often even a practical guide to the activities with which it connected. ... The cultural fact is a monument in which the myth is embodied; while the myth is believed to be the real cause which has brought about the moral rule, the social grouping, the rite, or the custom. Thus these stories form an integral part of the culture.” According to this interpretation, myths are a record of the extraordinary explanations that people from ancient times to the present have come up with, regarding the organizations, customs, and traditions that make up society. Magnificent, moving myths and legends have given peach blossoms a legendary quality. Yet myths and poems about peach blossoms are more than just records; they also serve to transplant these particular beliefs, the “immortal power” of peach blossoms, into the collective consciousness of future generations. The legends and myths endow the peach image with an undertone of becoming an immortal and warding off the evil. Peaches become a symbol of the supernatural. Belief in their divine powers, such as warding off evil, averting disaster, and bringing fortune, lurks in the minds of Chinese people. As a result, the belief reveals in the poetry. Especially, by using the peach blossom image, the poetry reflects separation from the rest of the world through the creation of an environment inaccessible to human society. And there are two divergent paths to create such an environment: becoming an immortal, or living in seclusion in the temporal world. These are two main ways of yinyi, peaceful seclusion shown in the peach blossom poetry. Tao Qian’s 陶潛 (365-427) “The Peach Blossom Spring” 桃花源詩並序 is representative of such connotation: separated from the evil (the politics in Tao’s case) and enjoying a peaceful life. Tao Qian’s “The Peach Blossom Spring” was an imaginary refuge the author had constructed for himself to escape from the dark times in which he was living, as well as a symbol of his desire for a secluded wilderness lifestyle that had arisen out of his dissatisfaction with the government of Liu Yu 劉裕 (363-422). In his tale, the forest of peach trees is a divider, a barrier in terms of both nature and culture. Tao’s choice of peach blossom imagery was clearly a continuation of the tale of Liu Chen 劉晨 and Ruan Zhao’s 阮肇 visit to the Cave of Peach Blossoms, drawing on the fantastic nature of peach blossoms in Chinese mythology. After the wide spread of “The Peach Blossom Spring”, the concept of peaceful seclusion—the delightful fantasy of living in peaceful seclusion in some corner of the world—became a perennial fixture, a sentiment frequently expressed in the works of later poets. At the same time, the popularity of “The Peach Blossom Spring” allowed the propitious connotations of peach blossoms to officially enter the poetic canon, as exemplified in the idea of peaceful seclusion.

3.To Become an Immortal and Peaceful Seclusion      

The yinyi connotations of peach blossom image manifest in two ways. The first branch is the association with becoming an immortal. In addition to specific adjective-noun constructions such as xiantao仙桃and lingtao 靈桃 (different terms for “peaches of immortality”), several portrayals of this theme can be found in poetry, for example:

漆水豈難變     The Qi River is not immutable,
桐刀乍可揮     the parasol tree blade may strike.
青書長命籙     Taoist classics will live on in writing;
紫水芙蓉衣     the purple waters are clad in hibiscus petals.
高翔五嶽小     Flying high above, the Five Great Mountains appear tiny,
低望九河微     Looking down, the Nine Rivers seem miniscule.
穿池聽龍長     Hear the dragon growing in the waters of the pond,
叱石待羊歸     Call to the stones and await the sheep’s return.
酒闌時節久     The feast ended long ago;
桃生歲月稀     Peaches grow only rarely.
(Xiao Gang 蕭綱 [503-551], “The Immortal Guest” [Xianke shi 仙客詩])

石橋有舊路     An old road crosses the stone bridge;
靈室儼眾仙     the temple seems filled with Immortals.
菊潭溜餘水     Mist rises above chrysanthemum lake;
丹灶起殘煙     smoke lingers over the concoctions on the hearth.
桃花經作實     In the time it takes the peach blossoms to ripen,
海水屢成田     the seawater have been replaced by fields for times and again.
逆愁歸舊裏     I follow my troubles back the way I came,
追問斧柯年     to learn who holds power in these days.
(Zhou Hongzheng, 周弘正 [496-574], “Matching a Poem of Yu Jianwu on Visiting a Taoist Temple” [He Yu Jianwu ru daoguan shi和庾肩吾入道館詩])

招隱訪仙楹     Searching for a hermit, I visit an immortal abode,
丘中琴正鳴     while the zither plays in the hills.
桂叢侵石路     Sweet osmanthus trees encroach upon the stone path,
桃花隔世情     and peach blossoms block news of the world.
薄暮安車近     When close to the dusk, a carriage approaches;
林喧山鳥驚     The forest rings with the startled cries of mountain birds.
(Fu Zhidao 伏知道 [fl. late sixth century], “Poem on the Theme of ‘Searching for a Hermit’” 賦得招隱 )

By using the peach blossom image in the three poems above, poets expressed the desire for peaceful seclusion by visiting or becoming an immortal. Moreover, in the poetry of the Tang dynasty, the peach blossom image had become nearly a synonym with the paradise realm of the immortals. The immortal symbolism of peach blossom image can best be seen in how the Tang poets interpreted Tao Qian’s “The Peach Blossom Spring”. Tao Qian’s intention in “The Peach Blossom Spring” was simply to describe a place of peaceful seclusion removed from—yet still part of—the world, a fantasy wonderland free from the ravages of war. Tang poets, however, interpreted “The Peach Blossom Spring” as being the world of the divine. Poems by Liu Yuxi 劉禹錫 (772-842) and Wang Wei 王維 (699-761), both entitled “Visiting the Peach Blossom Spring” 桃源行 and mirroring Tao’s work, mentions xianjia 仙家and xianzi 仙子 (various terms for “immortals”). In Tao’s tale, the residents of the village were just regular people isolated from the rest of the world, but Wang believed that they had “become immortals and for that reason not returned” 成仙遂不還. Liu went even further, making a clear distinction between the visitors and the locals: “the features of the mortals shocked the immortals” 俗人毛骨驚仙子. The Tang understanding of the concept of peaceful seclusion as it appeared in “The Peach Blossom Spring” had progressed beyond simply “slaughtering a chicken and holding a commonplace welcome banquet” 設酒殺雞作食 in Tao Qian’s work. Instead, the Tang understanding entailed “a lavish feast of rock marrow” 筵羞石髓 and inquiring into the secret of immortality. As a scholar Wang Xianqian 王先謙 (1842-1917) in the Qing dynasty wrote: “The Peach Blossom Spring was first made by Tao Jingjie (Tao Qian); by the Tang dynasty it was considered divine” 桃花源章, 自陶靖節之記, 至唐, 乃仙之.

Furthermore, any peaceful seclusion connotation of the peach blossom imagery used in Tang poetry was, for the most part, alluded to “The Peach Blossom Spring”, and thus to the realm of the immortals. For example, while many of the odes to peach blossoms in Complete Tang Poems (Quan tangshi 全唐詩) give only superficial descriptions of peach blossoms or the environments in which they grow, and rarely touch upon the symbolism or connotation, a small number of odes do propose the realm of the immortals as a backdrop for the development of peach blossoms. Specific instances include “Though the landing was so named, there were no peach blossoms to be found. Perhaps it was that Wuling Stream, which flows secluded under immortal skies” 塢名雖然在, 不見桃花發. 恐是武陵溪, 自閉仙日月. The frequent use of terms possessing a figurative association with peach blossoms, such as “dong” (洞 cave), “xi” (溪 stream), and “yuan” (源 spring), is an echo of Tao’s “The Peach Blossom Spring”. The peach blossom’s role as an established symbol for the realm of the immortals is a key characteristic of the peach blossom imagery found in the Tang dynasty poetry.

This connection between peach blossom imagery and the realm of the immortals was related to Taoism’s thriving popularity during the Tang dynasty. Many poets were influenced by Taoism: He Zhizhang 賀知章 (ca. 659-744) was led to Taoism, and Wang Wei was well-versed in Taoist principles. Taoists added religious overtones onto everything that could be reworked, so much so that, by the Tang dynasty, “The imperial court already considered the Peach Blossom Spring to be an abode of the Immortals, and included it in ritual ceremonies” 朝廷已經將桃源當成神仙窟宅，列入祀典. Peaches were considered by Taoists to have a miraculous nature, and the idea of eating peaches to become an immortal can be found throughout Taoist literature, from the tale of Zhang Daoling 張道陵 (34-156), the First Taoist, and his disciples Wang Chang 王长 and Zhao Sheng 趙升 in Biographies of the Divines 神仙傳, to the Taoist novel, “Collected Tales of Encounters with Immortals” 神仙感遇傳, which was written by Du Guangting 杜光庭 (850-933) near the end of the Tang dynasty.

To become an immortal by eating peaches, certainly, it was necessary to plant peach trees. As peach blossom image was a representative element of Taoist landscapes in the Tang dynasty, it was only natural that many Taoists enjoyed planting peach trees in their temples. When they bloomed, these peach blossoms attracted a large number of poets. Liu Yuxi’s “Poem Offered in Jest to the Gentlemen Enjoying the Flowers when Called Back to the Capital from Langzhou in the Eleventh Year of the Yuanhe Reign” 元和十一年自郎州召至京戲贈看花諸君子, contains a description of one such grand occasion: “Dust kicked up by travelers blows in our faces on the main road of the capital; each traveler claims to be returning home after having seen the flowers” 紫陌紅塵拂面來, 無人不道看花回. Taoist poets immortalized the blooming of the peach blossoms by describing the scenes inside the Taoist temple in their poems, for example, Gu Kuang’s 顧況 (ca. 725–ca. 814) “Peach Blossoms in a Mountain Sunset” (Yan li taohua 崦裏桃花):

崦裏桃花逢女冠 As the sun sets in the mountains a female Taoist is there among the peach blossoms;
林間杏葉落仙壇     apricot tree leaves fall over the abode of the immortals.
老人方授上清籙     An old man offers a Greater Clarity talisman;
夜聽步虛山月寒     at night, footsteps ring hollow and the moon shines cold above the mountain.

Without the peach blossom imagery, the overall character of the scene would be rather cold and lifeless. Peach blossom imagery was both a technique for adding vigor to these peaceful, secluded training grounds, and a way to exhibit the enigmatic nature of Taoist culture. Some poems took an even more direct approach, placing the peach blossoms within Taoist temples or painting them with strong religious overtones, such as Chu Sizong’s儲嗣宗 (fl. 859) “Staying in the Palace of the Jade Flute” (Su yuxiao gong 宿玉簫宮): “May I ask how many times the peach blossoms have bloomed, there where the Pills of Immortality are being cooked” 借問燒丹處，桃花幾遍紅. With peach blossoms clad in the colorful trapping of religion, the detached, lofty spirit of the devout and the ultimate object of their devotion—soaring up into the heavens as an immortal—directed the peaceful seclusion connotations of peach blossoms in poetry toward the realm of the immortals. To borrow a line from Li Bai 李白 (701-762): “Peach blossoms are carried by the flowing waters off into the distance; there is another, divine world to be found here” 桃花流水窅然去, 別有天地非人間.

4.The Peach Blossom Image and Peaceful Seclusion in the Temporal World

In addition to considering the peach blossom image as a part of the divined world, the poems also use the image to present the peaceful seclusion in the temporal world. Particularly, Tao Qian’s poem and tale are alluded to by expounding on the joys of peaceful seclusion within the temporal world. For example:

行人忽枉道    The travelers followed a winding trail,
直進桃花源    arriving at the peach blossom spring.
稚子還羞出    The children were too shy to show themselves;
驚妻倒閉門    he startled wives closed up their doors.
(Yu Xin 庾信 [513-581], “In Gratitude to Zhao Hui for His Wine” [Fengbao Zhaowang Hui jiu shi奉報趙王惠酒詩])

逍遙遊桂苑      Freely, I roam a garden where the osmanthus is blooming,
寂絕到桃源      and arrive at the Peach Blossom Spring, where few have tread.
狹石分花逕      Long, thin stones divide the flower-lined paths;
長橋映水門      a long bridge is offset by a fence gate near the water.
管聲驚百鳥      The sound of flutes startles the many birds,
人衣香一園      and the scent of perfumed clothing fills the garden.
定知歡未足      Certainly, I have not yet had my fill!
橫琴坐石根 I sit on the stone, playing the zither.
(Yu Xin, “Odes to Painted Folding Screens” [Yong huapingfeng shi詠畫屏風詩])

桃源驚往客     The Peach Spring startles visitors;
鶴嶠斷來賓     lofty mountains keep out guests.
復有風雲處     There is a place of wind and clouds,
蕭條無俗人     silent and lonely, where ordinary men do not tread.
山寒微有雪     A light snow falls in the cold mountains,
石路本無塵     there is no dust on that rock road.
…… …
雲霞一已絕     The color has faded from the clouds,
寧辨漢將秦      I wish to know if it is the Qin or the Han.
(Xu Ling 徐陵 [507-583], “Mountain Dwelling” [Shanzhai shi山齋詩])

These poems described secluded lives from the mortal world, where instead of immortals we see wives and children. Such descriptions bring the works to real life. This branch of peaceful seclusion, the idea of being content with an ordinary life, was carried on especially during the Song dynasty. Because Song scholars favored plum blossoms above all other flowers, the predominant trend at that time was to exalt plums and abase peaches. Song appreciation of the moral attributes of flowers was primarily demonstrated in the poetry of that time period, while more subtle impressions and the aims of living in peaceful seclusion found more expression in ci 詞 poetry. Consider the following ci poetry:

閒人行李 An idle traveler,
羽扇芒鞋塵世外 with a feather fan and grass shoes, beyond the hustle and bustle of the world.
一疊溪山 Mountains and rivers pile upon one another,
也解分風送客帆 but let through a bit of wind to fill the guest’s sails.
時平易醉 In times of peace I drink much and often;
無復驚心並濺淚 never again will I be startled or shed tears.
長揖忘言 I clasp my hands in farewell, wordlessly,
回棹桃花插滿船 returning to my ship I find it filled with peach blossoms.
(Zhu Dunru 朱敦儒 [1081-1159], “‘Magnolia Flowers’ with a Dropped Character” 減字木蘭花 )

曾醉揚州十里樓 I have drunk in many of Yangzhou’s fine inns.
竹西歌吹至今愁 I still hear the songs of Zhuxi playing in today’s sorrow.
燕銜柳絮春心遠 Swallows carry willow catkins in their beaks, but thoughts of spring are far-off;
魚入晴江水自流 Fish swim in the clear river, but the water flows along its own course.
情渺渺, 夢悠悠 My feelings are unclear, my dreams are troubled.
重尋羅帶認銀鉤 Once more, I search for that silk sash and silver pin.
掛帆欲伴漁人去 I put up my sail and hope to follow the fishermen,
只恐桃花誤客舟 but the peach blossoms may mislead my vessel.
(Lü Weilao 呂渭老 [fl. 1123], “Thinking of a Dear Guest” 思佳客 )

歸去來兮 I have returned to seclusion,
苕溪深處 in an isolated corner of the Tiao Stream,
上有蒼翠千峰 overlooked by countless emerald mountains.
月橋煙墅 A bridge like the crescent moon and hearth smoke rising over the wilderness;
家在五湖東 a home east of the Five Lakes.
試覓桃花流水 I will search for a place where the water flows and the peach blossoms bloom,
雞犬靜 Only when the clamor of dogs and roosters has ceased,
人跡才通 can men walk along that path.
沙汀晚 Nighttime, on a sandy beach,
一天雲錦 the sky ornamented with clouds,
飛下水精宮 which have flown down from the Crystal Palace.
兩年, 官事少 Two years now, with little official business;
江梅霧暗 the river plum blossoms are shrouded in fog,
多稼雲豐 the earth teems with crops and the sky with clouds.
把毗壇清夢 I will pour these wonderful dreams of Pitan,
盡入詩筒 into the pot that holds my poems.
只欠蘆花夜宿 I need only to stay the night under the cattails,
金溪上 on that golden stream,
一葦秋風 with the autumn wind blowing in the reeds.
蓑衣在 I have my cloak of woven grass,
不辭重整 happily will I start afresh,
來作釣魚翁 as a simple fisherman.
(Ge Tan葛郯 [d. 1181], “Courtyard Full of Frost: Speaking from the Heart” 滿庭霜•述懷 )

The concept of peaceful seclusion alluded to by peach blossom imagery in the Tang dynasty poetry was often aimed at achieving Taoist immortality and entering an illusory, untraceable realm of the immortals. In contrast, then, the peach blossoms in Song dynasty ci poetry, which were often seen in connection with fishermen and boats, placed the concept of peaceful seclusion within beautiful, leisurely scenes of nature, and shifted the aim of peaceful seclusion toward achieving a simple, ordinary life. To the people of the Song dynasty, the peach blossom spring was just a typical springtime paradise, boasting many residents but free from “the clamor of dogs and roosters”. It was not a place where immortals resided. What caused this change in viewpoints towards the peach blossom spring from the Tang dynasty to the Song dynasty? In addition to the popular fascination with pursuing immortality that took place during the Tang dynasty, Tang culture also remained open and inclusive throughout its existence. Song culture, however, gradually became gentle and delicate in its contemplations. Poets turned their attention from external objects to the inner world of the mind, for instance, from the northern frontier to poets’ private study and the secluded garden. Thus, Song poets took the “realm of the immortals” that had appeared in the Tang dynasty and made it more realistic and mundane, locating it within the mortal world. When, one after another, Song poets who had suffered enough the vagaries of bureaucratic life and included in their ci the dream of becoming a fisherman, they were expressing their approval of the peaceful seclusion connotations evoked by peach blossom imagery. Any place with beautiful scenery could become their refuge from the complicated real life, a place where their spirit could be at rest—and all such places could be referred to as “Peach Blossom Springs”. Qian Mu 錢穆 (1895-1990) once wrote: “In China, after the Song dynasty, most people began learning how to enjoy and appreciate life. In their daily lives, they sought a sort of philosophical happiness and comfort” 中國在宋以後，一般人都走上了生活享受和生活體味的路子, 在日常生活中尋求一種富於人生哲理的幸福與安慰.

This type of “everyday happiness” can be clearly seen in Zhu Dunru’s “Magnolia Flowers” 木蘭花:

老後人間無去處 In old age there is no place in this world for me;
多謝碧桃留我住 thankfully these jade peach blossoms have given me a reason to keep living.
紅塵回步舊煙霞 Their splendor was with me in days gone past;
清境開扉新院宇 I see them now just outside the door of my new, peaceful residence.
隱幾日長香一縷 Long days hunched over the desk, a smell the perfume of the flowers in the air,
風散飛花紅不聚 as the wind scatters their petals, keeping them from gathering together.
眼前尋見自家春 Now I seek springtime scenes in my own home;
罷問玉霄雲海路 I no longer ask the way up through the clouds to the Jade Firmament.

Zhu considers peach blossoms to be the only flower in which he can find peace in his old age, describing their loveliness before tossing out the line “I no longer ask”. Because the “springtime scenes in [his] own home” include jade peach blossoms, Zhu is able to find contentment there and has no desire to seek immortality, demonstrating that he has achieved a mental state of independent self-satisfaction. Zhu’s state of mind was representative of Song society as a whole—the ability to find beauty and leisure in daily life made it unnecessary to elevate the Peach Blossom Spring to a lofty status as the realm of the immortals. It had become possible to find comfort in seclusion within the mortal world as well.

5.Conclusion

After the peach blossom image became an independent aesthetic object, early poets primarily used peach blossoms to evoke a certain mood. After the legends endowed the peach blossom with a supernatural feature, peach blossom image started to be associated with peaceful seclusion. Certainly, peach blossom imagery has other connotations. Though there are numerous examples of peach blossom image alluding to peaceful seclusion in poetry, such usage is still not predominant. By contrast, peach blossom image is used more as a metaphor for women or as an element in descriptions of springtime scenery. However, compared to being a constant unchanged metaphor to describe women or springtime, the peaceful seclusion connotation of peach blossom image shows a change as poetry developed and dynasty passed. Different poets use its peaceful seclusion connotation in different ways, which shows the changing focal points of both poets’ poetic practice and the corresponding cultural norms. As the wide spread of Tao Qian’s “The Peach Blossom Spring”, poets began to construct in heart a peach blossom spring of their own where they could take refuge from the world. During the Tang dynasty, when the peach blossom spring was held to be the realm of the immortals, peach blossoms became a symbol for this realm. Thus, the peach blossom imagery represented an immortal-related connotation of peaceful seclusion in the Tang dynasty. During the Song dynasty, when the peach blossom spring was considered to be part of the temporal world, the goal of peaceful seclusion as represented by peach blossoms was finding contentment in everyday life.