Qu Yuan

Lore & Background

The only surviving source of information on Qu Yuan's life is Sima Qian's biography of him in Shiji, although the biography is circumstantial and probably influenced greatly by Sima's own identification with Qu. Sima wrote that Qu was a member of the Chu royal clan and served as an official under King 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 the Han 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 of King Hui of Qin to cede territory near Shangyu. During King Qingxiang's reign, Prime Minister Zilan slandered Qu Yuan, causing his exile to the regions south of the Yangtze River. In his exile, he spent much of this time collecting legends and rearranging folk odes while traveling the countryside. In 278 BC, learning of the capture of his country's capital, Ying, by General Bai Qi of the state of Qin, Qu Yuan is said to have collected folktales and written the lengthy poem of lamentation called Lament for Ying. Eventually, he died by suicide, wading into the Miluo River in today's Hunan Province while holding a rock.

Reader's Guide

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-called sao style of verse, which is named after his work Li Sao, in which he abandoned the classic four-character verses used in poems of Shi Jing and 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 of Romanticism in Chinese classical literature, and his masterpieces influenced some of the great Romanticist poets in the Tang dynasty. During the Han dynasty, Qu Yuan became established as a heroic example of model behaviour for a scholar-official denied public recognition suitable to their worth. The Chu Ci was compiled and annotated by Wang Yi (died AD 158), and is the source of transmission of these poems. The Chu Ci poems are important as being direct precursors of the fu style of Han dynasty literature. Following his suicide, Qu Yuan was sometimes revered as a water god, including by Taiwanese Taoists, who number him among the Kings of the Water Immortals. Qu Yuan began to be treated in a nationalist way as "China's first patriotic poet" during World War II. Their view of Qu's social idealism and unbending patriotism became canonical under the People's Republic of China after the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. Popular legend links the Dragon Boat Festival to his death, with traditions of eating zongzi and racing boats to commemorate him. China's interplanetary exploration program, Tianwen (Heavenly Questions), is named after his poem Heavenly Questions (Tianwen).

Did You Know?

• The first known reference to Qu Yuan appears in a poem written in 174 BC by Jia Yi, an official from Luoyang who was slandered by jealous officials and banished to Changsha by Emperor Wen of Han.
• Eighty years after Jia Yi's poem, the first known biography of Qu Yuan's life appeared in Han dynasty historian Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, though it contains a number of contradictory details.
• According to legend, during his depression Qu Yuan would often take walks near a certain well to look upon his thin and gaunt reflection; this well became known as the 'Face Reflection Well.'
• Qu Yuan's poem Heavenly Questions (Tianwen) addressed ontological questions regarding the origins of the universe and the mysteries of heaven and earth, and China's first Mars mission, Tianwen-1, was launched on July 23, 2020.
• Following his suicide, Qu Yuan was sometimes revered as a water god by Taiwanese Taoists, who number him among the Kings of the Water Immortals.