Chu Ci
The Chu Ci, variously translated as Verses of Chu, Songs of Chu, or Elegies of Chu, is an ancient anthology of Chinese poetry including works traditionally attributed mainly to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States period, as well as a large number of works composed during the Han dynasty several centuries later. The traditional version of the Chu Ci contains 17 major sections, anthologized with its current contents by Wang Yi, a 2nd-century AD librarian who served under Emperor Shun of Han. Classical Chinese poetry prior to the Qin dynasty is largely known through the Chu Ci and the Classic of Poetry.
Background
The Chu Ci was named after a form of poetry that originated in the State of Chu, which was located in what is now central China, but was then in the southern fringe of the Chinese cultural area. The territory of Chu was known for its blend of culture from the Central Plain, or "north", with other cultural influences, associated with the "south". Thus, north Chinese sometimes viewed the Chu as part of "the south", which had a reputation for various exotic features. The Chu Ci verses characteristically strongly feature the presence of the exotic. A Chinese form of shamanism was prominent in Chu, and a large number of the Chu Ci verses describe "spirit journeys". However, southern influence was extremely insignificant, only limited to the ideas of shamanism and burial objects which were from the south; other than that literature, poetry, clothing and architecture all remained northern.Other references to the exotic include encounters with various magical or fragrant plants and interaction with various spirits and deities, and travel to various exotic locations, such as the heavens, the ends of the earth, Bactria, and the Mount Kunlun of mythology.
The collection of poems by Qu Yuan and Song Yu are included in the Chu Ci, as well as works by other Chu poets, represent a certain development of an older tradition which eventually achieved a period of popularity and imperial favor during the Western Han dynasty. The Book of Han noted 106 Chu poets with 1,318 compositions. Many established Han poets also wrote in the Chu Ci style, producing their fair share of notable poems: the term Chu Ci can generically refer to the type of verse in this formal style of this type of verse. Other Chu Ci style verses were written, including some which survive, but are not generally included in the standard anthology. Wang Yi made an extensive commentary on the Chu Ci, as well as appending his own "Nine Longings", as the seventeenth and final section.
Authorship and editing
Although Chu ci is an anthology of poems by many poets, Qu Yuan was its central figure, both as author of the Li Sao section and in the persona of protagonist. There are various other authors which are also thought to have written various sections of the Chu Ci, as well as some sections which may derive from some traditional source. Various scholarly sources propose solutions for who wrote what, in the Chu Ci, with more doubt or questions about some sections than others. Besides the actual authorship of the diverse material of the Chu Ci, another scholarly concern is in regard to the history of who and when these pieces were collected and anthologized into one work, and also what other editorial work was done. Besides the authorship of the actual content, much commentary has been written in regard to the Chu Ci, some of which is traditionally incorporated into the printed editions.Qu Yuan
The name "Qu Yuan" does not occur in any text prior to the Han dynasty. According to common tradition, Qu Yuan was an administrative official in the court of King Huai of Chu who advocated forming an alliance with the other states against the increasingly dominant power of the Qin kingdom, during the Warring States period; however, his advice was not taken and he was slandered by other officials in court: seeing the corruption of his colleagues and the inability of his king to appreciate his true worth, Qu Yuan went into exile and then finally committed suicide by wading into the Miluo River with a heavy rock, when Qin general Bo Qi sacked the Chu capital Ying in 278 BC, forcing the royal court to relocate with considerable loss of territory. It is also traditionally said that it is in remembrance of the circumstances of Qu Yuan's death that the annual Dragon boat races are held.During his days of exile, Qu Yuan is thought to have written Li Sao. The authorship, as in many a case of ancient literature, can be neither confirmed nor denied. Written in 373 verses containing 2490 characters, Li Sao is a long Chinese poem.
Also, among the other Chu Ci works sometimes attributed to Qu Yuan, the Jiu Ge exemplify shamanic literature in China.
Authorship
The traditional view of the Chu Ci, which went largely unchallenged until the 20th century, was that Qu Yuan wrote about half of the pieces in the Chu Ci, with the other half being ascribed to other poets associated with him or writing in his style. Modern scholars have devoted long studies to the question of the Chu Ci pieces' authorship, but there is no consensus on which may actually be by Qu Yuan himself.Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian mentions five of Qu Yuan's works: Li Sao, Tian Wen, Zhao Hun, Ai Ying, Huai Sha.
According to Wang Yi of the Eastern Han dynasty, a total of 25 works can be attributed to Qu Yuan: Li Sao, Jiu Ge, Heavenly Questions , Jiu Zhang, Yuan You, Pu Ju, and Yu Fu.
Wang Yi chose to attribute Zhao Hun to another contemporary of Qu Yuan, Song Yu; most modern scholars, however, consider Zhao Hun to be Qu Yuan's original work, whereas Yuan You, Pu Ju, and Yu Fu are believed to have been composed by others. Similarly, Wang's attribution of the Qijian to Dongfang Shuo is suspect.
Anthology
There are questions or uncertainties as to how the Chu Ci came to be collected into its present form; however, at least some outlines of this historical process have been presented in scholarly literature. Another important aspect of Chu Ci studies is the editorial history. One regard is the order in which the various titles appear. There are also reasons to believe that some of the sections were subject to editing for various reasons, including to suit the verses to theatrical performance and due to the nature of the textual process of ancient China, involving writing lines of text on individual bamboo strips which were bound together, but when the bindings broke were subject to editorial decisions as to what their original order was.Wang Yi's selections of certain specific verses to anthologize in the modern Chu Ci has remained standard since its publication, towards the end of the Han dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, Liu Xiang apparently arranged and compiled the poems of Qu Yuan and Song Yu, likely working from an earlier compilation by Liu An, as well as those of Han poets including Wang Bao, Jia Yi, Yan Ji and Liu Xiang himself into the Chu Ci anthology as it is known today.
One of the important aspects of the Chu Ci is the body of commentary in this regard. Much of the initial surviving annotation of the standard editions of the Chu Ci was provided by Wang Yi, the Han royal librarian.
Contents
The Chu Ci consists of seventeen main sections, in standard versions, with some accompanying commentary standard. Chu Ci begins with "Li Sao", a poem which assumes biographical material about Qu Yuan with his relationship with the person of King Huai, ruler of Chu. Critics historically often interpret the "Li Sao" as political allegory, yet religious and mythological aspects arise, which derive from the culture of Chu. The second section, in standard modern order, the "Jiu Ge", despite its title translating to "Nine songs", actually includes eleven discrete parts. These seem to represent some shamanistic dramatic practices of the Yangzi River valley area involving the invocation of divine beings and seeking their blessings by means of a process of courtship. "Heavenly Questions", also known as Questions to Heaven, addressed to Tian, consists of series of questions, 172 in all, in verse format. The series of questions asked involves Chinese mythology and ancient Chinese religious beliefs. In general, the text of the Heavenly Questions asks questions; but, the text does not include answers, except, in some cases, in hints."Nine Pieces" consists of nine pieces of poetry, one of which is the "Lament for Ying". Ying was the name of one of the traditional capital cities of Qu Yuan's homeland of Chu. However, both the city of Ying and the entire state of Chu itself experienced doom due to the expansion of the state of Qin, which ended up consolidating China at the expense of the other former independent states: including Qu Yuan's home state. "Jiu Zhang" includes a total of nine pieces.
Also included are "Far-off Journey" , "Divination" "Bu Ju", "The Fisherman" "Yu Fu", "Nine Changes", "Summons of the Soul" "", "The Great Summons", "Sorrow for Troth Betrayed", "Summons for a Recluse", "Seven Remonstrances", "Alas That My Lot Was Not Cast", "Nine Regrets", consisting of nine sections, "Nine Laments", and "Nine Longings".