Qu Yuan

For the 1977 film, seeQu Yuan (film).

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisQu(Khuất).

Qu Yuan(c. 340 BC– 278 BC)was a Chinese poet and aristocrat in theState of Chuduring theWarring States period.He is known for his patriotism and contributions toclassical poetry and verses,especially through the poems of theChu Cianthology (also known asThe Songs of the SouthorSongs of Chu): a volume of poems attributed to or considered to be inspired by hisversewriting. Together with theShi Jing,theChu Ciis one of the two greatest collections of ancient Chinese verse. He is also remembered in connection to the supposed origin of theDragon Boat Festival.

Qu Yuan
Portrait of Qu Yuan byChen Hongshou,17th century
Born	c. 339BC State of Chu,in modern-dayZigui County,Hubei,China
Died	278 BC (aged 62) Miluo River
Occupation	Poet,politician
Chinese name
Chinese	Khuất nguyên
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Qū Yuán Wade–Giles Ch'ü1Yüan2 IPA [tɕʰý ɥɛ̌n] Wu Suzhounese Chiueh Nyœ́ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Wāt Yùhn Jyutping Wat1Jyun4 IPA [wɐt̚˥ jyn˩] Southern Min HokkienPOJ Khut Goân Tâi-lô Khut Guân Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *kʰut N-ɢʷar

Historical details about Qu Yuan's life are few, and his authorship of manyChu Cipoems has been questioned at length.However, he is widely accepted to have written "The Lament,"aChu Cipoem. The first known reference to Qu Yuan appears in a poem written in 174 BC byJia Yi,an official fromLuoyangwho was slandered by jealous officials and banished toChangshabyEmperor Wen of Han.While traveling, he wrote a poem describing the similar fate of a previous "Qu Yuan."Eighty years later, the first known biography of Qu Yuan's life appeared inHan dynastyhistorianSima Qian'sRecords of the Grand Historian,though it contains a number of contradictory details.

Life

The only surviving source of information on Qu Yuan's life isSima Qian's biography of him inShiji,although the biography is circumstantial and probably influenced greatly by Sima's own identification with Qu.Sima wrote that Qu was a member of theChu royal clanand served as an official underKing Huai of Chu(reigned 328–299 BC).

During the early days of King Huai's reign, Qu Yuan was serving the State of Chu as its Left Minister.However, King Huai exiled Qu Yuan to the region north of theHan River,because corrupt ministers slandered him and influenced the king.Eventually, Qu Yuan was reinstated and sent on a diplomatic mission to the State of Qi.He tried to resume relations between Chu and Qi, which King Huai had broken under the false pretense ofKing Hui of Qinto cede territory near Shangyu.

DuringKing Qingxiang's reign, Prime Minister Zilan slandered Qu Yuan.This caused Qu Yuan's exile to the regions south of theYangtze River.It is said that Qu Yuan returned first to his home town. In hisexile,he spent much of this time collecting legends and rearranging folk odes while traveling the countryside. Furthermore, he wrote some of the greatest poetry inChinese literatureand expressed deep concerns about his state.According to legend, his anxiety brought him to an increasingly troubled state of health. During his depression, he would often take walks near a certain well to look upon his thin and gaunt reflection in the water. This well became known as the "Face Reflection Well." On a hillside in Xiangluping (at present-dayZigui County,HubeiProvince), there is a well that is considered to be the original well from the time of Qu Yuan.

In 278 BC, learning of the capture of his country's capital,Ying,by GeneralBai Qiof thestate of Qin,Qu Yuan is said to have collected folktales and written the lengthy poem of lamentation called "Lament for Ying".Eventually, hecommitted suicideby wading into theMiluo Riverin today's Hunan Province while holding a rock. The reason why he took his life remained controversial and was argued by Chinese scholars for centuries. Typical explanations including martyrdom for his deeply beloved but falling motherland, which was suggested by the philosopherZhu Xiof the Song dynasty, or feeling extreme despair to the situation of the politics in Chu while his lifelong political dream would never be realized. But according to "Yu Fu,"widely considered to be written by Qu himself or at least, a person who was very familiar with Qu, his suicide was an ultimate way to protect his innocence and life principles.

According toLi Yinhe,Qu Yuan is said to have expressed his love for the ruling monarch,King Huai of Chu,through several of this works, including "The Lament"and" Longing for Beauty ".

Legacy

Qu Yuan as depicted in theNine Songs,imprint of presumably the 14th century (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Qu Yuan is regarded as the first author of verse in China to have his name associated to his work, since prior to that time, poetic works were not attributed to any specific authors. He is considered to have initiated the so-calledsaostyle of verse, which is named after his work "Li Sao,"in which he abandoned the classic four-character verses used in poems ofShi Jingand adopted verses with varying lengths. This resulted in poems with more rhythm and latitude in expression. Qu Yuan is also regarded as one of the most prominent figures ofRomanticismin Chinese classical literature, and his masterpieces influenced some of the great Romanticist poets in the Tang dynasty. During theHan dynasty,Qu Yuan became established as a heroic example of how a scholar and official who was denied public recognition suitable to their worth should behave.

Chu Ci

Main article:Chu Ci

Portrait of Qu Yuan (National Palace Museum)

Chu was located in what is now theYangzi Riverarea of centralChina.At this time, Chu represented the southern fringe of the Chinese cultural area, having for a time been part of both theShang dynastyand theZhou dynastyempires. However, the Chu culture also retained certain characteristics of local traditions such asshamanism,the influence of which can be seen in theChu Ci.

TheChu Ciwas compiled and annotated by Wang Yi (died AD 158), which is the source of transmission of these poems and any reliable information about them to subsequent times; thus, the role which Qu Yuan had in the authoring, editing, or retouching of these works remains unclear.TheChu Cipoems are important as being direct precursors of thefu styleof Han dynasty literature.TheChu Ci,as a preservation of early literature, has provided invaluable data for linguistic research into the history of the Chinese language, fromChen Dion.

Religion

Following his suicide, Qu Yuan was sometimes revered as awater god,including byTaiwaneseTaoists,who number him among theKings of the Water Immortals.

Patriotism

See also:Chinese nationalism

As depicted in the albumPortraits of Famous Men,c.1900 (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

Qu Yuan began to be treated in anationalistway as "China's firstpatrioticpoet "duringWorld War II.Wen Yiduo—a socialist poet and scholar later executed by theChinese Nationalist Party—wrote in hisMythology & Poetrythat, "although Qu Yuan did not write about the life of the people or voice their sufferings, he may truthfully be said to have acted as the leader of a people's revolution and to have struck a blow to avenge them. Qu Yuan is the only person in the whole of Chinese history who is fully entitled to be called 'the people's poet'."Guo Moruo's 1942playQu Yuangave him similar treatment, drawing parallels toHamletandKing Lear.Their view of Qu's social idealism and unbending patriotism became canonical under thePeople's Republic of Chinaafter the 1949Communistvictory in theChinese Civil War.For example, one high-school Chinese textbook from 1957 began with the sentence "Qu Yuan was the first great patriotic poet in the history of our country's literature".This cult status increased Qu Yuan's position within China's literary canon, seeing him placed onpostage stampsand theDragon Boat Festivalelevated to anational public holidayin 2008. It has, however, come at the expense of more the critical scholarly appraisals of Qu Yuan's historicity and alleged body of work that had developed during the lateQingandearly Republic.

Dragon Boat Festival

Main article:Dragon Boat Festival

Statue of Qu Yuan on adragon boat,on display for theDragon Boat FestivalinSingapore

Popular legend has it that villagers carried their dumplings and boats to the middle of the river and desperately tried to save Qu Yuan after he immersed himself in the Miluo but were too late to do so. However, in order to keep fish and evil spirits away from his body, they beat drums and splashed the water with their paddles, and they also threw rice into the water both as a food offering to Qu Yuan's spirit and also to distract the fish away from his body. However, the legend continues, that late one night, the spirit of Qu Yuan appeared before his friends and told them that he died because he had taken himself under the river. Then, he asked his friends to wrap their rice into three-cornered silk packages to ward off the dragon.

These packages became a traditional food known aszongzi,although the lumps of rice are now wrapped in leaves instead of silk. The act of racing to search for his body in boats gradually became the cultural tradition ofdragon boatracing, held on the anniversary of his death every year. Today, people still eatzongziand participate in dragon boat races to commemorate Qu Yuan's sacrifice on the fifth day of the fifth month of the traditional lunisolarChinese calendar.The countries around China, such as Vietnam and Korea, also celebrate variations of thisDragon Boat Festivalas part of theirshared cultural heritage.

Space Exploration

China'sinterplanetary exploration program,Tianwen(Heavenly Questions) is named after a poem by Qu Yuan. The first mission to Mars,Tianwen-1,was launched on July 23, 2020, and reached Mars on February 10, 2021. On Mar 14, 2021, the lander and rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars.

See also

• Jiu Ge
• Classical Chinese poetry
• Tianwen
• Song Yu
• Dragon Boat Festival
• Tianwen-1
• Qu (surname khuất )
• Shun Li and the Poet(Qu Yuan serves as Shun Li's inspiration)

References

Bibliography

• Chang, H.K.; Ye Lang; Fei Zhengang; Wang Tianyou, eds. (2007),"Qu Yuan",China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization,Kowloon: City University of Hong Kong Press, pp.205–6,ISBN9789629371401
• Davis, Albert Richard, ed. (1970),The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse,London: Penguin Books.
• Guo Moruo(1952),《 khuất nguyên 》 [Qu Yuan],Beijing: Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe.(in Chinese)
• Hartman, Charles (1986). "Ch'ü Yüan khuất nguyên". In Nienhauser, William H. Junior (ed.).The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Volume 1.Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 352.ISBN0-253-32983-3.
• Hawkes, David(1959),Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South, an Ancient Chinese Anthology,Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Hawkes, David(1974),"The Quest of the Goddess",Studies in Chinese Literary Genres,Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.42–68,ISBN0-520-02037-5.
• Hinton, David (2008),Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology,New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux,ISBN978-0-374-10536-5.
• Hu, Mingyuan (2024),Lament in Love: The Verses of Qu Yuan,London: Hermits United,ISBN978-1-7391156-4-7.
• Kern, Martin (2010). "Early Chinese literature, Beginnings through Western Han". InOwen, Stephen(ed.).The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–115.ISBN978-0-521-11677-0.
• Knechtges, David R. (2010). "Qu Yuan khuất nguyên". InKnechtges, David R.;Chang, Taiping (eds.).Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Part One.Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 4: China, volume 25/1. Leiden: Brill. pp. 745–749.doi:10.1163/9789047444664_002.ISBN978-90-04-19127-3.
• Wen Yiduo(1956), "Nhân dân đích thi nhân nhất khuất nguyên [Rénmín de Shīrén—Qū Yuán, Qu Yuan: The People's Poet] ",《 thần thoại dữ thi 》 [Shénhuà yú Shī, Mythology & Poetry],Guji Chubanshe.(in Chinese)
• Yip Wai-lim (1997),Chinese Poetry: An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres,Durham:Duke University Press,ISBN0-8223-1946-2.
• Zhang Zongyi (1957),《 khuất nguyên dư sở từ 》 [Qū Yuán yú Chǔcí, Qu Yuan and the Songs of Chu],Changchun:Jilin Renmin Chubanshe.(in Chinese)

Further reading

• Sima Qian(1993) [c. 90s BCE].Records of the Grand Historian.Translated by Watson, Burton (Rev. ed.). New York: Columbia Univ. Press.ISBN0-231-08164-2.
• Schneider, Laurence A. (1980).A Madman of Ch'u: The Chinese Myth of Loyalty and Dissent.Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Waley, Arthur(1973).The Nine Songs; a Study of Shamanism in Ancient China.San Francisco: City Lights Books.ISBN0-87286-075-2.
• Watson, Burton (1962).Early Chinese Literature.New York: Columbia University Press.ISBN9780231086714.

External links

• "Qu Yuan (Chu Yuan), the great poet"
• "This article has photos of Qu Yuan's hometown before it was submerged by the dams project"
• "The Dragon Boat Festival"(article reproduced from Volume 1, number 2 of the newsletter of Families with Children from China of the San Francisco Bay Area)