Escaping from the Trail: A Study on the Phenomenon of Intellectuals’ Abandoning Officials in Tang Dynasty

“Abandoning official positions” refers to the behavior of officials abandoning official post without authorization. The phenomenon of “abandoning official positions” was frequent in Tang Dynasty. There were many reasons for “abandonming official positions”, such as “disease”, “filial piety”, “avoiding misfortune”, “unable to get higher postion” and “strong personality” . Some of them concentrate on Buddhism and Taoism, while others entertain themselves with poetry and prose. “Abandoning official positions” is another choice for officials after their career despair, and an alternative action which deviates from the mainstream concept of society. Although many officials often expressed their desire to abandon their official positions, they did not take action, reflecting the contradictory mentality of the Tang people between being an official and returning to seclusion.