陶淵明〈雜詩〉有十二首，前八首是內容複雜、充滿矛盾的一組詩：既傷老之北至，又願永不 ；既悲志之不遂，又欲與親戚子孫朝夕與共；而在傷老與悲志的情懷中，又盪漾著強烈的戀昔情結。 就在傷老與悲志的熬煉下，陶明淵明對於生命的本質以及生存的意義，有了不同於以往的省思。他發現人所以不同於草木，在於草本有根，而人「無根」。「無根」才是人的生命本質。人生竟是一場無根之旅：起於「無根」，終於死亡！如此則生存的意義又在那裡？自覺遲暮已甚的陶淵明，這時最大的願望竟然是：「我願不如老。親戚共一處，子孫還相保。」當年超越四海的壯志、大濟蒼生的宏願，雖不可能從心中完全消逝，但已不再居重要的位置。代之而起的是：去過一種平凡自在而歡樂溫馨的生活。那才是生存意義之所在。 在傷老與悲志的交錯中，也同時盪漾著強烈的戀昔情結。家的溫馨，琴書之樂，還有林園之趣，可說是戀昔情結的主要內容。此一戀昔情結，既型塑了陶淵明的性情，也是其詩文中情感與思想的基礎。有此戀昔情結，使〈雜詩〉前八首這一組詩，在傷老的蒼涼中不不頹唐，在悲志的感概中亦非消沉，反而激發出對生命的靈思慧悟，表現於清疏樸厚的詩句中，在意境風格上可謂別具一格。

There are 12 poems in the Tao Yuan-ming’s Za Shi. The first eight poems are a series of poems with complicated and contradicted contents: strong emotions form reminiscing the twilight interweaves with givers of the twilight and the failure of achieving his ambitions. Nevertheless, it was under the examination of grieving over his twilight and the underachievement, Tao had different reflections on the essence of life and the meaning of life. He found that differing from plants and vegetables, humans are “rootless” being. Being ”rootless” is the essence of life, and that a man’s life is a rootless journey, which originated without a root, and at last dies. If his is true, then what is the meaning g of living? Surprisingly, to his point, the biggest wish of Tao, who had realized his twilight, was “having a young heart, accompanying by the close relatives, and that the children being able to take care of one another”. Although the noble ambitions he once had were not completely eliminated from his thoughts, they were no longer his priority. Instead, living a peaceful and happy life would be the true meaning of life. In the intertwining of grieving over the twilight and the underachievement, a strong emotion comes format the reminiscences of the past could be found. The main contents of the reminiscence are the loveliness of the home, the enjoyment of playing music and reading books, as well as the pleasure of being in the house garden/bushes. This reminiscence only formed Tao’s personal character, but also served as the emotional and theoretical basis in the poems. Moreover, the reminiscence of the past brings out a sense of cheerfulness out of the grief of the twilight and rids the downheartedness form the sighs for the failure of achieving the ambitions in the first eight poems in Za Shi. Rather, the reminiscence of the past shows the inspiration and understanding of life expressing between the simple and plain poetic lines, and creates a style of its own.