The Virtual and Artistic Construction of Tao Yuanming’s Paradise and the Innovative Practice of Literary Theory

The Digital Humanities Research Team from the Department of Creative Arts at Hong Kong Metropolitan University has developed ‘Building a House in the Human Realm: An Immersive Virtual Literary Space on Tao Yuanming’s Seclusion Lifestyle’, establishing an artistically rendered learning environment for poetry. Drawing upon Hanjo Berressem’s Poetopology and hypertext theories by Espen J. Aarseth, this paper examines the design and interactive functionalities of the virtual space. It aims to analyze how the space innovatively instantiates literary theories within modern digital humanities-based classical literature education, thereby demonstrating its pioneering and forward-looking nature. Unlike traditional passive learning and reading practices associated with classical poetry, this virtual space presents a novel paradise mechanism stitched together by poetic imagery. Users can step into the poet’s world and construct their own unique learning hypertext by actively choosing specific imagery elements within this paradise. Inhabiting this immersive space, such hypertexts are actively forged through readers’ gamified and interactive choices. Highly randomized, this approach substantially enhances the multilinearity, intertextuality, and decentralization of learning Tao Yuanming’s poetry. Furthermore, the project transforms traditional reading pathways into a novel trajectory: topological space—digital manipulation—hypertext generation. Within the horizon of contemporary digital humanities and literary education, this virtual literary space serves as a groundbreaking case study in putting poetic topology and hypertext theory into practice.