Tao Yuanming
Political background

Through the history of the times, enough is known of the general state of affairs during Tao's governmental career to indicate why such service during that sorry state of political affairs was so miserable for him: Tao Yuanming served under the two usurpers Huan Xuan and Liu Yu, not to mention the weak and pitiful emperor An.

The future emperor An of Eastern Jin (born 382 and personally named Sima Dezong) was a scion of the dynastic ruling family of the Jin empire, the Sima. His father was emperor Xiaowu, who named him crown prince in 387, despite his extreme developmental disabilities (being unable to dress himself, speak, or generally communicate). When Xiaowu was murdered in bed by his secondary wife, the Lady Zhang, An was crowned emperor in 397. Acting as regent, actual control of the empire was in the hands of emperor An's father's younger brother Sima Daozi. The regent, Sima Daozi, could dress himself and communicate verbally, but nevertheless was not that capable of a ruler, with a reputation for feasting and drinking rather than attending to affairs of state, and surrounding himself with flatterers. Various insurrections developed during the span of this corrupt and incompetent government, mostly unsuccessful, a state of affairs which did not change much when Sima Daozi's son Sima Yuanxian succeeded as regent (an event reported to happening during a bout of drunkenness on the part of Sima Daozi). Eventually, the warlord Huan Xuan was able to consolidate enough power to seize the regency for himself. Huan Xuan was a kleptocrat, who found some way to seize whatever valuable objects or properties that he envied. Besides that, Huan had a habit of tyrannically punishing any official who made the slightest mistake or whom he was suspicious of. In 403, Huan had emperor An abdicate, so that he himself could be ruler both in fact and in name, and renamed his empire as the Chu dynasty. Shortly thereafter Huan Xuan was killed during the course of an uprising, in 404/405. The rebels then restored emperor An to his nominal position, and the empire's name to Jin. The leader of the rebels was Huan Xuan's general Liu Yu, who proceeded to rule as regent for emperor An. A typical pattern of external warfare and rebellions from within followed. In 418/419 Liu Yu had an assassin kill emperor An. Liu Yu installed An's younger brother (Sima Dewen) as emperor Gong, with Liu Yu retaining the real power. Liu Yu then forced Gong to abdicate, and not long after had him assassinated. Upon Gong's abdication, Liu Yu had himself named as Emperor Wu of Song, thus officially ending the Jin dynasty. This is the government in which Tao Yuanming served, and his poems portray his increasing discontent with doing so, whether or not he was really inclined to do so anyway is less clear (and he seems to have other personal, family reasons for his decision to resign). Nevertheless, after around a decade of service, Tao decided to leave the government and go back to his home region.
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