How to be a Hermit

Underneath the surface current of an engaged Confucian life deeply flowed a channel of hermetic aesthetics. Chinese scholars preparing for life at court or already employed there developed a lasting and complex tradition of imagining an idyllic, rural life outside the capital. Much like the Western creation of the pastoral ideal in the hands of the urbane, the romanticization of the hermit or country life became the respository of Confucian scholars' desires for respite and repose. The fantasy of dwelling alone in nature and among one's numberless scrolls became a prime form of escape from the demands of an active, political life, or, at the very least, the poetic justificaiton for not being able to become a part of it.

Readings:
Tao Yuanming
Xie Lingyun (p.524-32)
Meng Haoran
Wang Wei

Questions:
(1) Identify the recurring, poetic images that make up this aesthetic.
(2) How, if at all, do these poets handle differently the imagination of an idyllic existence?
(3) Are there any images that seek to disrupt the harmony of these perfect imaginations?
(4) Is there any poet who appears more manneristic (imitative) in his treatment than others?

Links:
*Video (Youtube) of China's landscapes
*Definition of the "wild"?
*A modern Chinese definition of "nature"?
*OED definitions of "nature"?
*Modern state of Chinese environment?

Secondary references:
*Frodsham, J.D. The Murmuring Stream: The Life and Works of the Chinese Nature Poet Hsieh Ling-yun (385-433), Duke of K'ang-Lo. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1967.
*Charles Yim-tze Kwong. Tao Qian and the Chinese Poetic Tradition. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1994.
*Swartz, Wendy. Reading Tao Yuanming. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2008.
*Tian Xiaofei. Tao Yuanming & Manuscript Culture. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2005.
*Hightower, James Robert. The Poetry of T'ao Ch'ien. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1970.
*Kroll, Paul W. Meng Hao-Jan. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.
*Yu, Pauline. The Poetry of Wang Wei: New Translations and Commentary. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1980.