Basic Series of National Studies - Chu Ci

Author: Wu Guangping (translator and annotator)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-05-01
Features: As is well known, the poetry of pre-Qin China from the early Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC) to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period (6th century BC) spanned about five hundred years and was the golden age of the development of four-line poetry. This "singing of the ancestors" was collected, organized, and compiled by the Zhou people into China's ancient collection of poems, the Book of Songs (Shijing). Three hundred years after the Shijing, Chinese literature was almost shrouded in the brilliance of prose, while poetry remained in a period of silence. To break this silence were the genius poet Qu Yuan and his successor Song Yu. They created a new poetic form with distinct regional characteristics of Chu. This poetic form is known as "Chu Ci." "Chu Ci" is entirely different from the Shijing. It is not collective singing but individual creation; not realistic but romantic; it emphasizes subjective emotion rather than realistic depiction of nature; it portrays southern scenes rather than northern landscapes; it uses overall symbolism rather than isolated allusions; its lines are not rigid four-line structures but dynamic mixed-line forms; its compositions are not repetitive short chapters but grand, structurally elaborate works; and its style is not natural and simple but profound, elegant, and refined. The distinctive regional characteristics of Chu Ci are classicall summarized by Huang Bosi of the Song Dynasty in the preface to his Collected Chu Ci: "The works of Qu Yuan, Song Yu, and the other Ci poets all use the language of Chu, the tunes of Chu, record the lands of Chu, and name the objects of Chu, hence they can be called Chu Ci" (see Compendium of Song Literature, Volume 92). Because the representative works of this new poetic form are the "exquisite and extraordinary words that surpass all others in their time" (Lao Yan Wei Ci, Zhuo Jie Yi Shi by Lu Xun in Outlines of the History of Han Literature), Chu Ci is also known as the "true Chu Ci style." 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 name "Chu Ci" first appeared during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), in the biography of Zhang Tang in the Annals of the Severe Officials, records: "Bai Jin assisted Zhang Tang in studying Chu Ci and was favored as an attendant, promoted to Grand Master of the Central Court, and entrusted with important duties." During Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang compiled ancient texts and collected the Chu Ci-style poems of Qu Yuan and Song Yu, as well as the imitation Chu Ci-style poems by Han Dynasty authors such as Jia Yi, Xiao Shan of Huainan, Dong Fang Shuo, Yan Ji, Wang Bao, and Liu Xiang, into a collection of sixteen volumes, naming it Chu Ci. From then on, "Chu Ci" also became the name of a collection of poems. In the early years of Emperor An of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Yi added annotations to Liu Xiang's Chu Ci and included his own work, Nine Thoughts, naming the entire collection Commentary on Chu Ci (Chu Ci Zhangju), which had seventeen volumes. The sixteen-volume Chu Ci compiled by Liu Xiang has long been lost, leaving only Wang Yi's seventeen-volume Commentary on Chu Ci in circulation today, which is the oldest extant annotated edition of Chu Ci. The Chu Ci is an ancient classic of Chinese literature and holds an extremely important position in the vast historical documents of ancient China. According to the traditional four-part classification of literature (Jing, Shi, Zi, Ji), Chu Ci belongs to the "Ji" category and has long been called the "forefather of Ji literature." Opening the largest ancient Chinese encyclopedia, the Siku Quanshu, the first work in the "Ji" category is Chu Ci. Thus, the compilers of the Siku Quanshu stated: "Among the works in the Ji category, Chu Ci is the oldest." Due to its pivotal role in the history of Chinese literature, the study of Chu Ci has a long and rich history, with countless 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 (Volume 9 of the Chenggong section) records that Zhong Yi of Chu played the Nan Yin tunes on the zither while in Jin, earning praise as "a musical performance that preserves the local customs, never forgetting the old." During the Warring States Period, local Chu melodies 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 the works of Chu Ci. Qu Yuan's Crossing the River and Nine Songs, as well as Song Yu's Nine Discourses, are new poems written under old titles. Chu folk songs before Qu Yuan's time include the famous love song of a Yue ethnic fisherman's girl from the era of King Kang of Chu (reigned 559–545 BC), translated in Liu Xiang's Sayings of the Good (Shuanyuan): "What night is this tonight? I row in the middle of the stream. What day is this today? I am in the same boat with the prince. I am ashamed but not ashamed of my disgrace. My heart is troubled but not broken, for I have met the prince. Mountains have trees, and trees have branches. My heart delights in you, but you do not know." Several decades later, the Mencius (Volume 1 of the Lilou section) cites a song attributed to Confucius, the Song of the Child: "The water of the Canglang is clear, and I can wash my lanyard. The water of the Canglang is muddy, and I can wash my feet." Both of these poems use the particle "xi," which is the same as the basic form of later Chu Ci, making them pioneers of Chu Ci. However, such folk tunes were like gentle streams. Without the great poet Qu Yuan learning from and adopting them, and creating works such as Lao Yan Wei Ci, Zhuo Jie Yi Shi (Lao Yan Wei Ci, Zhuo Jie Yi Shi by Lu Xun in Outlines of the History of Han Literature), Lao Yan, Nine Songs, Nine Discourses, and Heavenly Questions, the craze of Chu Ci-style poetry in the long river of Chinese poetry could not have emerged, and the "literature of one generation" would not have been achieved. It is no exaggeration to say that the emergence of Qu Yuan was a brilliant sunrise for the Chinese poetic world. However, this genius poet experienced great ups and downs and joys and sorrows in his life! Let us travel through the mists of history to enter the life of this great poet and feel the of his life. Qu Yuan, surnamed Mi (), of the Qu clan, named Ping, styled Yuan, shared the same ancestors as the Chu king. In his Chu Ci-style poem Seven Admonitions, Initial Release (Qi Jian, Chu Fang), Dong Fang Shuo of the Western Han Dynasty wrote: "Born in the state, raised in the wilderness." Here, "the state" refers to the capital, meaning Ying, the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan's Nine Discourses, Lamenting Ying also contains lines such as "Leaving my homeland for distant lands," "Departing Ying to the neighborhood," and "Leaving the dwelling of antiquity," clearly indicating that his hometown was Ying. Based on the poet's self-description and Han Dynasty records, we can conclude that Qu Yuan was from Ying (now Jining City, Jishan County, Hubei Province). According to Lao Yan: "Shi Ti was sincere in Meng Zhou, and I was born on the day of Geng Yin in the first month of the seventeenth year of King Xuan of Chu (March 23, 353 BC)."