A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Ch'ên T'ao

by Herbert A. Giles

250 Ch'ên T'ao 陳陶. 9th and 10th cent. A.D. A poet and astronomer of the T'ang dynasty. Unable to brook the rule of the Later T'angs, he retired to the hills, and lived in retirement with his wife, who was also a scholar, and grew oranges for a livelihood. "It is not," said he in one of his political poems, "that the phoenix and the ch'i lin visit the Middle Kingdom no more, but that they are all caught in the nets of the Imperial family." A neighbouring official once sent a waiting-maid to try his chastity, but he was proof against all her arts. He called himself 三教布衣.