Chu Ci, Basic Series of National Learning

Author: Wu Guangping (translator and annotator)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: April 2, 2001
Features: As is well known, the poetry of pre-Qin China from the early Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC) to the mid-Eastern Zhou Dynasty (6th century BC) spanned approximately five hundred years, marking the golden age of four-line verse. This "singing of the ancients" was collected, organized, and compiled by the Zhou people into the ancient Chinese poetry anthology Classic of Poetry (Shijing). Three hundred years after the Shijing, Chinese literature was almost dominated by the brilliance of prose, while poetry entered a period of silence. To break this silence were the genius poet Qu Yuan and his successor Song Yu, who created a new poetic form with local characteristics of Chu. This poetic form is known as "Chu Ci." "Chu Ci" is vastly different from the Shijing. It is not collective singing but individual creation; not realistic but romantic; it emphasizes subjective lyricism rather than objective realism, depicts scenes of the South rather than landscapes of the North, and employs holistic symbolism rather than singular allegory. Its lines are not rigid four-line verses but dynamic mixed-line constructions; its compositions are not repetitive short chapters but grand masterpieces in structure; and its style is not natural and simple but magnificent and elegant. The distinct local characteristics of Chu Ci were classicall summarized by Huang Boensi of the Song Dynasty in the preface to his Collected Edition of Chu Ci: "The works of Qu, Song, and the other poets of Chu were all written in the Chu dialect, with Chu melodies, recording Chu regions, and naming Chu objects—hence, they can be called Chu Ci." (See Comprehensive Mirror to the Past Volume 92). Because the representative works of this new poetic form, such as the Li Sao (which is described by Lu Xun as "an extraordinary echo of sublime words, surpassing its age" in Outlines of the History of Han Literature), were later referred to as the "true body of Chu Ci poetry." In the history of Chinese literature, "Feng" and "Sao" are often mentioned together, with "Feng" referring to the Shijing and "Sao" referring to Chu Ci. The term "Chu Ci" first appeared during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian in the "Biography of Cruel Officials—Zhang Tang" records: "Bai Min assisted Zhang Tang in writing Chu Ci and was promoted to Grand Attendant. He held significant influence." During the reign of Emperor Cheng of the Western Han, Liu Xiang organized ancient texts, compiling the works of Chu poets such as Qu Yuan and Song Yu (in the Chu Ci style) along with those of Han Dynasty poets like Jia Yi, Xiao Shan of Huainan, Dongfang Shuo, Yan Ji, Wang Bao, and Liu Xiang into a collection of sixteen volumes, naming it Chu Ci. From then on, "Chu Ci" became the name of a poetic anthology. In the early years of Emperor An of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Yi annotated Liu Xiang's Chu Ci and added his own work, Nine Meditations, naming the entire volume Collected Annotations and Explanations of Chu Ci (Chu Ci Zhangju), which totaled seventeen volumes. Liu Xiang's sixteen-volume edition of Chu Ci has long been lost, leaving only Wang Yi's seventeen-volume Chu Ci Zhangju in circulation—this is the oldest extant annotated edition of Chu Ci. Chu Ci is an ancient classic of Chinese literature and holds an extremely important position in the vast historical records of ancient China. According to the traditional four-division system of Chinese literature (Jingshu, Zishu, Zi, Ji), Chu Ci belongs to the "Ji" category and has long been revered as the " of Ji." Opening the largest ancient Chinese encyclopedia, Siku Quanshu, one finds that the collection of works under the "Ji" category includes Chu Ci. Thus, the compilers of Siku Quanshu noted: "Among the works in the Ji category, Chu Ci is the oldest." Due to the pivotal role of Chu Ci in the history of Chinese literature, its study has endured for a long time, with numerous treatises and scholarly works on the subject, giving rise to a specialized field of study—Chu Ci studies. As a poetic form, Chu Ci originated from "Chu music" and "Chu songs." During the Spring and Autumn Period, the music and folk songs of Chu were known as "Nan Feng" or "Nan Yin." The Zuo Zhuan (Record of Zuo) in Spring and Autumn Annals records that Zhong Yi of Chu played the Nan Yin while playing the qin in Jin, earning praise for "playing the music of the local land, never forgetting the old." In the Warring States Period, local tunes of Chu such as Crossing the River, Picking Lotus, Lao Shang, Nine Discourses, Nine Songs, Xie Lu, Yang Chun, and Bai Xue can still be seen in Chu Ci works. Qu Yuan's Crossing the River and Nine Songs, as well as Song Yu's Nine Discourses, are new poems written with old titles. Chu folk songs before Qu Yuan are exemplified by the famous love song of a Yue tribal fisherwoman from the reign of King Kang of Chu (559–545 BC), translated and recorded in Liu Xiang's Sayings of the Good as the Song of the Yue Maiden: "What night is this tonight? Rowing in the midstream? What day is this today? To be in the same boat with Your Highness? Shamed and pleased, yet not caring for disgrace. My heart is troubled, yet it does not cease—meeting Your Highness. Mountains have trees, and trees have branches, but my heart delights in you, though you do not know." Several decades later, the Mencius (Volume 1, Chapter 1) records the Song of the Child, traditionally attributed to Confucius: "The water of the Canglang is clear, and I may wash my cap. The water of the Canglang is turbid, and I may wash my feet." Both of these poems use the particle "," matching the basic form of later Chu Ci and serving as its forerunners. However, such folk tunes, like a gentle stream, could not have formed the wave of Chu Ci poetry in the long river of Chinese poetry or achieved the status of "literature of the age" without the genius poet Qu Yuan's study and adoption, creating works like the Li Sao, Nine Songs, Nine Meditations, and Heavenly Questions that are "sublime in spirit, sharp in language, stunning in brilliance, and unmatched by any" (as described in The Art of Prose and Rhythm). It is no exaggeration to say that Qu Yuan's emergence was a brilliant dawn on the Chinese poetic stage. Yet, this genius poet's life was marked by dramatic ups and downs, joys and sorrows. Let us peer through the mists of history to step into the life of this great poet and experience his legendary journey! Qu Yuan, surnamed Mi (), of the Qu family, named Ping, styled Yuan, shared the same ancestors as the Chu king. In his Seven Advises (Chu Ci style), Dongfang Shuo of the Western Han Dynasty wrote: "In the country, he lived long, in the wilds." Here, "the country" refers to the capital, Ying, the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan's Nine Meditations, Lament for Ying also explicitly states his hometown: "Leaving my homeland for the distant land," "Departing from Ying to the alleys," and "Leaving the dwelling of ancient times." Based on the poet's self-descriptions and Han Dynasty records, we can conclude that Qu Yuan was from Ying (now Jining City, Jishan County, Hubei Province). According to the Li Sao, "In the first month of the year when the celestial stem was Zhi, the earthly branch was Meng—on the day of Geng Yin, I was born," Qu Yuan was born on the twenty-third day of the first month of the seventeenth year of King Xuan of Chu (353 BC).