In the 18th year of Taiyuan (393 AD), Tao Yuanming was 29 years old and was hired by Wang Ningzhi, the governor of Jiangzhou, to serve as the priest of the Zhoufu. At that time, Xunyang was in chaos and the administration was ruled by the officials. Wang Ningzhi was old and stupid, did not care about political affairs, and believed in the Five Dogs of Rice. His intention to hire Tao Yuanming was not to value his talents to manage Jiangzhou's affairs well, but to treat him as a golden signboard, hoping to use his reputation to enhance his prestige and thus gain the reputation of seeking talents. Therefore, although Tao Yuanming was nominally the chief aide of Zhoufu, he did not actually hold real power, and what he could not tolerate was that Wang Ningzhi tempted him to participate in the Five Dogs of Rice. Tao Yuanming insisted on not following, so he only barely spent more than a month on his position as a voluntary person, and ended his first short career in his life.

In the first year of Long'an (397 AD), Pang Zun came to Shangjing with a handwritten letter from the governor of Jingzhou Huan Xuan, and hired Yuanming to serve in Huan Xuan's army. This time, Yuanming had been four years since his first official position. Over the years, he lamented that his fate was bumpy, he encountered a traitor, and his treacherous ministers were in power, and he did not get the opportunity to show his talents. Moreover, his family's situation was getting worse day by day. Since Xuxian Zhai entered the door, his painful body and mind were comforted. Now he can't bear to let Zhai repeat the mistakes of Chen and follow him to suffer poverty. Under Pang Zun's repeated persuasion, he accepted it with a glimmer of hope.

After Huan Xuan's entrusted, he rode the official boat he was on when Pang Zun came, and went up against the rolling eastward river water to Huan Xuan's residence, and began a new journey in his life. In Jiangling, Jingzhou Prefecture, Tao Yuanming accepted Huan Xuan's appointment as the military office, and served here for more than a year. Later, because he met his cousin in Beijing, he analyzed Huan Xuan's ambition to usurp power, and realized that being in favor of Huan Xuan was contrary to his wish to revive the Jin Dynasty and reign with the court. At this moment, the bad news of his mother's death came, so he submitted his resignation and quickly returned to his hometown, Shangjing, ending his official career.

In the third year of Yuanxing (404 AD), General Jianwei and Jiangzhou Governor Liu Jingxuan suddenly visited. He brought a letter from the general of the army stationed in Shitou City, the governor of Nanxuzhou, and the governor of Bazhou Liu Yu, and hired Tao Yuanming to take office in Beijing. Two days later, Yuanming bid farewell to his wife and weak son, boarded the official ship specially sent for him by Liu Jingxuan, leaving his former residence in Shangjing, and began his career as an official. After serving in the army for several months, he was sent back to Xunyang to serve as the army of Liu Jingxuan.

Liu Jingxuan could trust and provide advice for more than two years. In the first month of the first year of Yixi, Emperor An of Jin, Liu Yu completely quelled Huan Xuan's rebellion and welcomed Emperor An of Jin to Kyoto to restore the throne. According to convention, the military and political leaders of various regions must send envoys to Kyoto with seals and gifts to celebrate. Liu Jingxuan handed over this task to Yuanming, and at the same time gave him another important mission to submit a letter to him to request dismissal to avoid the edge of his political enemy Liu Yi. After Yuanming accepted this task, he came day and night.

Kyoto, presented a memorial of congratulations and Liu Jingxuan, and once again met with his cousin, expressing his desire to abandon the official life and insist on returning to his hometown to live in seclusion. After a little thought, my cousin Tao Kui said to him: "It is good to go to the countryside again, but have you ever thought about it? You are old, not good at managing finances, your children are young, and your family is poor. How should you maintain your future life? I think you might as well take a path of Zhongyin". What is Zhongyin? It refers to being a small local official. Yuanming thought about it again and again,

When he met Liu Yu, he made his own request. In June of the first year of Yixi, Emperor An of Jin, the special envoy of the court came to Xunyang and read out the imperial edict to remove Liu Jingxuan from the governor of Jiangzhou and wait for the settlement. Then, the special envoy submitted a private letter to Liu Jingxuan to Liu Yu, asking Liu Jingxuan to appoint Yuanming as the magistrate of Pengze County before leaving office. A month later, Yuanming bid farewell to his family and came to his post to Pengze County. He served as the county magistrate for more than 80 days. Later, due to the attack on the mail supervision, he angrily hung his seal on Pengze, left the officialdom, and truly embarked on the road to retreat to his hometown.

4. Pengze hanging seal

Pengze is a small county with a population of only more than 20,000. The water network is dense, swamps and lakes are scattered, the temperature is moderately hot and cold, and the land is fertile, which is very suitable for the growth of crops. Therefore, the product is rich, various resources are numerous, and the people's lives are relatively stable. Tao Yuanming was very satisfied at first when he came to Pengze to work, because it was not far from home, and as long as he took a boat from Pengze, he could reach the inland ferry near Shangjingli in just two days. According to an unwritten rule at that time, each county magistrate could have the control of the income and expenditure of 300 acres of public land, and the income was owned by the county magistrate, which was enough to maintain the life of the family. At the same time, with his talent, he was also full of confidence in managing a small Pengze County. He longed to come to Pengze County, and he must compassionate with the people, love the people, and do his best to enable the people to live and work in peace and happiness.

At that time, Pengze County, since the Taiyuan period of Emperor Xiaowu, two phenomena occurred after the implementation of the oral tax system of each adult male collecting 5 s of rice rent. One is that the burden of ordinary farmers has increased greatly, and farmers are unwilling to own more land. No one is willing to reclaim some barren forests and swamps, and some farmers even abandon some barren land and abandon them. The second is that the population is hidden seriously, and there is a strange phenomenon of borrowing far less than the actual population, which has led to a reduction in government tax revenue and the burden of the government is transferred to ordinary farmers. Faced with this situation, the first thing Tao Yuanming had to do after taking office was to check the household registration.

The household registration has not been carried out in Pengze County for more than ten years. The reason is that some of the previous local officials did not go deep into the public to explore the people's situation and did not know much about the inside story, so they turned a blind eye and let it go. Some saw the problem and arrested it, but died in the middle due to various interferences. There are two main people who interfere. One is the wealthy landlord, who used money to bribe the yamen runners to help them conceal the population. The other is that the local tyrants and evil gentry, or they were stubborn with law enforcement personnel, making it impossible for them to investigate, or they used someone in the family to serve as an official in the yamen to suppress people with power, so that the investigation personnel dared not do normal work, but only symbolic registration was completed. For example, He Tai in the north of the city, there were hundreds of hectares of fertile land and hundreds of adult slaves in his family. Because He Tai's younger brother He Long served as the county magistrate of Xunyang County for a long time and was the deputy prefect of the prefect, he served as a member of the prefect. The county magistrates all gave special preferential treatment to the He family, and only registered 20 male lords, which was very different from the actual number. Therefore, other landlords followed suit and had to give up the work of investigating the population halfway. However, Tao Yuanming, in this work of investigating the population, "capturing the king first", dared to chew tough problems, and immediately started the operation from the He family. By suddenly visiting He Tai, he led the yamen runners to the He Mansion, and instructed the butler He Tai to take out the roster and scatter. After checking, it was found that He Tai's family concealed more than 200 adult males, which shocked the whole county in one fell swoop. In just half a month, more than 3,000 adult males were found hidden by the rich and rich gentry. After the first victory, he announced that from the following year, the tax paid by each adult male was reduced from the original five stones to three stones. The county people cheered in unison, praising the new county magistrate's wisdom and the virtue of loving the people as a son.

Because of this household registration, Tao Yuanming offended the Xunyang County Magistrate He Long. In order to extricate his anger, He Long designed to use the hands of the Inspector Liu Yun to punish Tao Yuanming. Inspector Liu Yun is a subordinate in the county, responsible for the specific supervision and assessment of the political achievements of the officials of the county, and has a direct impact on the promotion, demotion, appointment and removal of officials of each county. Liu Yun, the Inspector of Xunyang County, is famous for his fierceness and greed. Every winter and summer, he has to inspect various counties, called the Ministry of Operations, and every time the Ministry of Operations, he returns with a full load. Liu Yun was ordered by He Long and came to Pengze according to his plan. He did not issue a document in advance, but suddenly broke into the county government to catch Tao Yuanming off guard. At this moment, Tao Yuanming was drinking and chatting with several staff members. He heard that He Yun was here.

He immediately withdrew from the seat to greet him, but Liu Yun was angry and not only did not return the greeting, but also scolded: "I came to Guixian. What is the reason for your disheveled clothes and laziness? At present, the country is in trouble. You don't think about the country's kindness, and work hard to govern and benefit the people. Instead, you gathered together to drink during the day and ignored government affairs. What is the use of the court asking you to wait for abusive officials?" After saying that, he left and gave Tao Yuanming a warning. After Liu Yun left, Yuanming asked the crowd, "I am angry today, I don't know what it is for?" A staff member replied: "The inspector has always been greedy. According to the humble position, he is just taking advantage of the situation and asking for bribes." After hearing this, Yuanming said angrily: "How can I bow my back for five dou of rice and go to the villain in the village! He asked for bribes, he was looking for the wrong person."

Just on that night, people came to Wuchang to report their death. Tao Yuanming's sister unfortunately died of illness, and Yuanming suddenly felt a sense of inexplicable sorrow. He recalled everything that happened during the day and the dark current situation of intrigue in the officialdom, and then thought that the wish of returning to the countryside that he had pursued for many years had not been truly realized. He couldn't help but make him finally make up his mind to withdraw from the officialdom and return to the countryside. Then he ordered Tao Xing to find a boat outside the city, packed his luggage, and stepped into the county government gate alone, looking at the golden plaque with "a mirror hanging high", sneered a few times, then placed the seal on the desk, strode out of the county government, and walked towards the dock by the riverside, and took the boat with Tao Xing to Shangjing.

Five, stop at Chizhou

Chizhou is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River and has been a "land of poets for thousands of years and a village for lotus and Buddhas". Tao Yuanming has stopped here twice, leaving behind the eternal stories of Qianxi writing poetry and East-flowing chrysanthemums.
Chapter completed!