Mr. Ti Wu (right) couple, the
Honor association president of Aust Cai Hong
Ying International Authors' Federation, attended to the
commemoration meeting of Qu Yuan.
About Qu
Yuan
Qu Yuan 屈原(d. 278 BC) was a high minister at the
Warring States time court of the king of Chu 楚, proposing him
reforms in government and an alliance with other states to encounter
the power of the neighboring state of Qin 秦. When the king did not
follow his advises and was taken a prisoner by Qin, Qu Yuan wrote
"Sorrow after department" Li Sao 离骚, a kind of autobiography.
The disappointed poet drowned himself in the
Dongting lake after the king of Chu died in his prison far from
home. People offered rice balls to his soul, and during the mid
autumn moon festival, rice balls (zongzi 粽子) are still a popular
meal.
Other poems that are ascribed to Qu Yuan are the
Nine Songs (Jiu Ge 九歌), the Nine Elegies (Jiu Zhang 九章), "Asking
Heaven" (Tian Wen 天问) and some more. The particular style of this
poetry gave it the name "Poetry of Chu (the most southern state of
that period)" Chu Ci 楚辞.
It is different from the northern poetry styles both
in verse (the verse divider xi 兮, a particle expressing sighing) and
in content. The northern literature is much more plain of feelings,
while the poems in the southern state of Chu are full of sentiment
and even mystical visions.
Qu Yuan is guided on his horse chart to a heaven far
from the human world. His evokings of the Goddess of the river is an
example of shamanism widespread in the southern religion. Southern
poetry later became very popular among Taoists that also saw man as
a mere small being the cosm and nature.
