|
Jiu Zhang
Jiu Zhang (; ) is a collection of poems attributed to Qu Yuan and printed in the Chu Ci (楚辭 ''Songs of Chu'', sometimes ''Songs of the South''). Title translation ''Jiu zhang'' is a transliteration of the title of this section of the ''Chu ci''. ''Jiu'' means nine, as in the number. It is not entirely clear why this number was chosen to divide this work into sections, although performance purposes or imitation of prior ''Chu ci'' works are both likely factors. ''Zhang'' was commonly used in ancient Chinese to mean a section of a literary work, such as a paragraph of a prose piece or for a stanza of a song or poem. ''Jiu zhang'' may also be translated into English alternatively, such as Nine Declarations. The nine pieces The nine poems of the ''Jiu Zhang'' form a diverse collection. Table of contents The "Nine Pieces" consists of nine titles of poems: Note that poem numbers 1, 6, 7, and 9 actually lack titles in the original text; rather, they are named for the sake of conv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan ( – 278 BC) was a Chinese poet and aristocrat in the State of Chu during the Warring States period. He is known for his patriotism and contributions to classical poetry and verses, especially through the poems of the '' Chu Ci'' anthology (also known as ''The Songs of the South'' or ''Songs of Chu''): a volume of poems attributed to or considered to be inspired by his verse writing. Together with the ''Shi Jing'', the ''Chu Ci'' is one of the two greatest collections of ancient Chinese verse. He is also remembered in connection to the supposed origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. Historical details about Qu Yuan's life are few, and his authorship of many ''Chu Ci'' poems has been questioned at length. However, he is widely accepted to have written "The Lament," a ''Chu Ci'' poem. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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.Hawkes, David. Ch'u Tz'u: ''Songs of the South, an Ancient Chinese Anthology''. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 28. 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 Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lament For Ying
Lament for Ying () is a poem which has sometimes been attributed to Chinese poet Qu Yuan, and dated to around 278 BCE. Lament for Ying is from the " Nine Declarations" (''Jiu Zhang'') section of the ''Chuci'' poetry anthology, compiled in ancient China. The ''Ying'' in the title is a toponym (placename). The word ''Ai'' implies a post-destruction lamentation for this place. Hawkes, 163 Ying was famous as the capital of the kingdom of Chu, Qu Yuan's homeland. Background According to tradition, Qu Yuan, a patriot of the State of Chu, his home country, wrote the work in anguish as the Qin general Bai Qi marched his troops upon Ying, capital of Chu (in present-day Hubei Province), threatening to invade. In the face of the imminent peril confronting his homeland, he was filled with fury and grief. The poem expresses his deep concern and worry for his country's fate, his pity for the people of Chu, and his anger at the country's self-indulgent ruler who had allowed this tragedy to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ju Song
''Ju Song'' () is a Classical Chinese poem which has been preserved in the '' Nine Pieces'' (''Jiu Zhang'') section of the ancient Chinese poetry anthology, the ''Chu ci'', or ''The Songs of Chu''. The poem has been translated into English by David Hawkes as "In Praise of the Orange-Tree". In the poem, the orange-tree is used as a metaphor for certain human qualities, such as "steadfastness". Hawkes explains this by the tradition that this type of orange tree is supposed to grow naturally only in the part of China of which the ancient land of Chu was included in (as opposed to the northern plain). The particular orange-tree (''ju'') mentioned is what David Hawkes calls "''citrus nobilis''"; but, this type of orange (or, its hybrids) is now usually botanically referred to as ''Citrus reticulata'', or else by the common name of "mandarin orange". Symbolism The word ''ju'', meaning "orange (fruit or tree)" is phonetically reminiscent of the word ''zhù'' (祝), which means "to wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Chuci Contents
This is a list of the sections and individual pieces contained within the ancient poetry anthology ''Chu Ci'' (), also known as ''Songs of the South'' or ''Songs of Chu'', which is an anthology of Classical Chinese poetry verse (poetry), verse traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States period, though about half of the poems seem to have been composed several centuries later, during the Han dynasty.Hawkes, David. Ch'u Tz'u: ''Songs of the South, an Ancient Chinese Anthology''. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 28. The traditional version of the ''Chu Ci'' contains 17 major sections, and was edited by Wang Yi (librarian), Wang Yi (), a 2nd-century AD librarian who served under Emperor Shun of Han. The ''Chu Ci'' and the ''Shi Jing'' together constitute the chief sources of pre-Qin dynasty Chinese verse. "Encountering Sorrow" "Li Sao" () is one of the most famous of the works contained in the ''Chu Ci'': it mainly is upon a theme of seemingly autobiograph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liu An
Liú Ān (, c. 179–122 BC) was a Chinese cartographer, monarch, and philosopher. A Han dynasty Chinese prince, ruling the Huainan Kingdom, and an advisor to his nephew, Emperor Wu of Han (武帝). He is best known for editing the (139 BC) ''Huainanzi'' compendium of Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist teachings and is credited for inventing tofu. Early texts represent Liu An in three ways: the "author-editor of a respected philosophical symposium", the "bumbling rebel who took his life to avoid arrest", and the successful Daoist adept who transformed into a '' xian'' and "rose into the air to escape prosecution for trumped-up charges of treason and flew to eternal life." Life He was the grandson of Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han dynasty. After his father died, he became the Prince of Huainan, the lands south of the Huai River, at the age of 16. Liu An had two sons. The younger was Liu Qian (刘迁), who was born by his princess consort and thus became heir to H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liu Xiang (scholar)
Liu Xiang (77–6BCE), born Liu Gengsheng and bearing the courtesy name Zizheng, was a Chinese astronomer, historian, librarian, poet, politician, and writer of the Western Han dynasty. Among his polymathic scholarly specialties were history, literary bibliography, and astronomy. He is particularly well known for his bibliographic work in cataloging and editing the extensive imperial library. Life Liu Gengsheng was born in Xuzhou. Being a distant relative of Liu Bang, the founder of the Han dynasty, he was a member of the ruling dynastic clan (the Liu family). Liu Xiang's father ranked as a marquess. Liu Xiang's son, Liu Xin, would continue the scholarly tradition of his father and his relative Liu An (the Prince of Huainan). By the beginning of Emperor Yuan's reign, Liu Xiang was a member of a group of Confucian officials, including Xiao Wangzhi, who wished to limit the power of the emperor's female family members relatives' clans, the Shi and the Xu. He ended up on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Yu
Song Yu (; 298–263 BC) was a Chinese poet from the late Warring States period, and is known as the traditional author of a number of poems in the ''Verses of Chu (Chu ci'' 楚辭'')''. Among the ''Verses of Chu'' poems usually attributed to Song Yu are those in the '' Jiu Bian'' section. Also credited to Song Yu, somewhat improbably, are several '' fu'' collected in the 6th century literary anthology '' Wen Xuan''. Biography Biographic information about Song Yu tends to be anecdotal, rather than truly historical, and little reliable information about Song's life exists. Historical accounts agree that Song was from the state of Chu, and was born in the city of Yan (modern Yicheng, Hubei Province), and lived during the reign of King Xiang of Chu (r. 298–263 BC). Works According to the section covering literature and art in the ''Book of Han'', Song wrote 16 works, but only 14 of them have been handed down, such as '' Jiu Bian'' and ''Dengtuzi Haose Fu'' (). However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wang Yi (librarian)
Wang Yi (; ), courtesy name Shushi (), was a Chinese anthologist, librarian, and poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ... during the Eastern Han dynasty who was employed in the Imperial Library by the Later Han emperor Shun Di (). Wang Yi is known for his work on the poetry anthology '' Chu Ci''. Although with varying reliability, his commentaries on this work are a main source of information regarding some of its often obscure textual references. Biography Wang Yi was born in the former territory of the State of Chu, in what is now Yicheng, Hubei. Chu had existed as an independent political entity for many centuries, and for much of that time as one of the major regional powers, until its defeat in BCE 223, by Qin, some four centuries before the birth of Wang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mingyuan Hu
Mingyuan Hu is a British historian and publisher. Hu read Classics, Philosophy and Art History at the University of Glasgow and won the Herkless Prize in 2008. From the same university she received her PhD in Literary History. Between 2008 and 2023, she held teaching positions at the University of Glasgow and the University of Leeds, and research positions at the Victoria & Albert Museum and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The biographer of Fou Lei and author of two fictions, she also translates French, English, and Chinese literature. She is the founder of Hermits United, a multilingual literary press in London and Paris. Selected works Monographs * '' Fou Lei: An Insistence on Truth'' (Brill, 2017; Hermits United, 2023). (French translation by Maël Renouard: ''Fou Lai. Un héros vaincu'', 2025) * ''Late Roses and Early Snow'' (Hermits United, 2022) * ''Mnemosyne'' (Hermits United, 2022) Translations * ''Toward Bravery and Other Poems'' (Hermits United, 2017; 2022) by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
