「歸田」是士大夫面臨官場上的不適應時，極常見的一種由仕宦到農耕的職場轉換，其中所觸及到的議題，包括由「士」到「農」的個人自我定位，由「都邑」到「鄉野」的生存場域轉換，以及由「人為」回歸「自然」、由「當代」重返「遠古」等行為與心智模式的抉擇。而農民生活的劬勞困乏與田園書寫中的歡樂景象，一直存在著巨大的落差，其中所關涉的政經文化等諸多問題，以及「歸田」如何獲得歷代詩人的共鳴而蔚為社會風尚，有待釐清。本論文嘗試對「歸田」意識的形成及其書寫觀念的遞嬗之跡，進行探源溯流的探討。全文共分七節，除〈前言〉與〈結論〉外，其餘分別為〈政治體制下的農耕生活〉、〈勸學與勸農的雙線發展〉、〈回歸原始躬耕記憶的思維進路〉、〈由張衡〈兩京賦〉到〈歸田賦〉──歸田文學的虛擬書寫〉、〈虛擬寫作的「至樂」取向與春天氣象〉。整體而言，做為國家主要經濟來源的農業生產，與擔任政策執行者的官僚體系，有其既對立而又相互依存、甚至存在著某些同質性的微妙關係。因此，藉由張衡〈歸田賦〉所開啟的虛擬書寫，以及歸田詩人在實踐中所展現的適性逍遙與享受快樂的能力，使田園得以超越政治體制，成為安頓人心、獲致生命自由、體現「至樂」境界的願景，進而開闢了「歸田」文學的繽紛園地。

“Returning to farm” is a common type of career transition from official to farmer among literati who feel disappointed with the officialdom. The issues included in the process contain the self-identification from literati to farmers, the living style from city to country, and the mindset decision from present civilization back to ancient naturalism. There exists a huge difference between the toil of farmer life and the joyfulness of writing on farmyard. This yields many political, economic and cultural problems that haven’t been studied extensively. This essay is trying to investigate the origin of the formation of consciousness and the changing process of writing ideas on “returning to farm”. In addition to the “Introduction” and “Conclusion” sections, there are “Farming life under the political system”, “Developments of both encouraging learning and encouraging farming”, “Thinking processes about the memory of returning to ancient personal farming”, “Suppositional writing of the literature on returning to farm— from Chang Hen’s 〈Liang Jin Fu〉to〈Guey Tien Fu〉”, and “The acquisition of joyfulness and spring scene of suppositional writing”. Generally speaking, agricultural production as a nation’s mainly economic resource and bureaucracy as policy executor are opposite but interdependent to each other. They have some homologous relationships through serving the dominator altogether. According to the suppositional writing by Chang Han’s “Guey Tien Fu” and the ability to enjoy happiness from executing processes by Guey Tien poets, pastoral literature surpasses the political system and becomes the paradise to settle human mind, acquire freedom and experience life. This also sets pastoral literature up to a flourishing scope.