方東樹(1772-1851)論詩名著《昭昧詹言》，係就王士禛《古詩選》與姚鼐《今體詩鈔》所選名家之作，一一論其詩法而成。全書凡二十一卷，其中「卷四」以專章討論陶淵明的五言古詩，共八十五則。方東樹自言：「前人說陶詩者甚眾，然多迹論常解，無關微言勝理，今皆不取。」似乎自恃其評敘陶詩，獨具迥異於前人之見識。本文據此出發，將《昭昧詹言》中評論陶淵明與其作品之詩話，析分為三個層次進行討論。首先，方東樹標舉出陶詩「直書胸臆」的特質，並認為其胸中自然流露的任真，實乃《六經》、孔、孟之道腴，且以「深人」而非「詩人」稱許之；其次，方東樹在謝榛「不必專學陶」的論點之上，進一步提出初學者不宜先學陶詩的建議，並在實際評述淵明作品時，帶入文、理、義等方氏重視的學詩準則，期望對後學有所俾益。第三，陶淵明的淡泊胸襟與詩歌表現無二，符合方東樹的儒學詩教觀，然對於陶詩中流露的其他思想，方氏並未轉換視角而依舊秉持儒學觀審度，造成其評論上的侷限，但卻也是別具特色的詮解。

Fang Dong Shu方東樹 (1772-1851) in his Zhau Mei Zhan Yian 昭昧詹言indicated that lots of people had comments about Tao Yuan Ming's poetry, but none is brilliant. That sounds like he has different comment from others. This paper tries to discuss how special it is. First of all, in appreciating side, Fang Dong Shu points out the characteristic of Tao Yuan Ming's poetry of "write thoroughly by his heart 直書胸臆," and applauded him "shen ren 深人" but not "shi ren 詩人." Secondly, in creating part, Fang Dong Shu criticized Yuan Ming's poetry by "wun文," "li 理," "yi義," which are standards he paid much attention to study writing poetry. Thirdly, as for Confucianism's view, Tao Yuan Ming's poetry and his mind are totally match, that conforms to Fang Dong Shu's concept of poetics. However, for other thoughts conveyed in Tao Yuan Ming's poetry, Fang Dong Shu didn't shift his perspectives but still adhered to Confucianism's view to observe and judge. That is the limitation as well as distinguishing feature of his comment.