田园将芜胡不归

田園將蕪胡不歸

tiányuán jiāng wú hú bù guī

quotation

Meanings

1 the fields and gardens are about to run wild - why not return?
2 (fig.) urgent call to abandon official life and go home to nature
3 (lit.) field-garden about-to overgrow why not return

Characters

garden (田园 = fields and gardens / rural home)

to run wild / overgrown with weeds

why (classical interrogative)

Examples

HSK 7-9

他厌倦了城市喧嚣，常自语田园将芜胡不归。

Tā yànjuàn le chéngshì xuānxiāo, cháng zìyǔ tiányuán jiāng wú hú bù guī.

Tired of city noise, he often mutters to himself, 'the fields are running wild - why not go home?'

HSK 7-9

辞职回乡，朋友们说他有陶渊明田园将芜胡不归的情怀。

Cízhí huíxiāng, péngyǒumen shuō tā yǒu Táo Yuānmíng tiányuán jiāng wú hú bù guī de qínghuái.

He quit his job and returned to the countryside - his friends said he had Tao Yuanming's 'why not go home' spirit.

Tips

history

The opening line of 陶渊明《归去来兮辞》 (Tao Yuanming, Homecoming Rhapsody, 405 CE). Tao, just resigned from his 80-day magistracy at Pengze, writes: 归去来兮，田园将芜胡不归！ (Let me go home! The fields and gardens are almost lost to weeds - why do I not return?). Arguably the founding text of the Chinese reclusion tradition - every later retirement poem echoes it.

usage

胡 here is a classical interrogative meaning 'why' (= 何), not 'barbarian' or 'recklessly'. The line is typically recited as the opening of the whole 辞, not alone. Modern use: a highbrow way to announce leaving the rat race.

Stroke Order

田 tián

园 yuán

将 jiāng

芜 wú

胡 hú

不 bù

归 guī