Editing Utopia (section)

===The Peach Blossom Spring===
The ''[[Peach Blossom Spring]]'' ({{lang-zh|c=桃花源|p=Táohuāyuán}}), a prose piece written by the Chinese poet [[Tao Yuanming]], describes a utopian place.<ref>{{cite book| last=Tian| first=Xiaofei| title=The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature| year=2010| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge| isbn=978-0-521-85558-7| page=221| chapter=From the Eastern Jin through the Early Tang (317–649)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Berkowitz| first=Alan J.| title=Patterns of Disengagement: the Practice and Portrayal of Reclusion in Early Medieval China| year=2000| publisher=Stanford University Press| location=Stanford| isbn=978-0-8047-3603-9| page=225}}</ref> The narrative goes that a fisherman from Wuling sailed upstream a river and came across a beautiful blossoming peach grove and lush green fields covered with blossom petals.<ref name=zh182>{{cite book| last=Longxi| first=Zhang| title=Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West| year=2005| publisher=Cornell University Press| location=Ithaca| isbn=978-0-8014-4369-5| page=182}}</ref> Entranced by the beauty, he continued upstream and stumbled onto a small grotto when he reached the end of the river.<ref name=zh182/> Though narrow at first, he was able to squeeze through the passage and discovered an ethereal utopia, where the people led an ideal existence in harmony with nature.<ref name=zh182-3>{{cite book| last=Longxi| first=Zhang| title=Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West| year=2005| publisher=Cornell University Press| location=Ithaca| isbn=978-0-8014-4369-5| pages=182–183}}</ref> He saw a vast expanse of fertile lands, clear ponds, mulberry trees, bamboo groves and the like with a community of people of all ages and houses in neat rows.<ref name=zh182-3/> The people explained that their ancestors escaped to this place during the civil unrest of the [[Qin dynasty]] and they themselves had not left since or had contact with anyone from the outside.<ref name=zh183>{{cite book| last=Longxi| first=Zhang| title=Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West| year=2005| publisher=Cornell University Press| location=Ithaca| isbn=978-0-8014-4369-5| page=183}}</ref> They had not even heard of the later dynasties of bygone times or the then-current [[Jin dynasty (265–420)|Jin dynasty]].<ref name=zh183/> In the story, the community was secluded and unaffected by the troubles of the outside world.<ref name=zh183/>

The sense of timelessness was predominant in the story as a perfect utopian community remains unchanged, that is, it had no decline nor the need to improve.<ref name=zh183/> Eventually, the Chinese term ''Peach Blossom Spring'' came to be synonymous for the concept of utopia.<ref>{{cite book| last=Gu| first=Ming Dong| title=Chinese Theories of Fiction: A Non-Western Narrative System| year=2006| publisher=State University of New York Press| location=Albany| isbn=978-0-7914-6815-9| page=59}}</ref>