# Qu Yuan

| Qu Yuan |
| --- |
| Portrait of Qu Yuan by Chen Hongshou (17th century) |
| Born | c. 339 BC State of Chu, in modern-day Zigui County, Hubei, China |
| Died | 278 BC (aged 62) Miluo River |
| Occupation | Poet, politician |
|  |
| **Lua error in Module:Infobox\_multi-lingual\_name at line 132: attempt to call field '\_transl' (a nil value).** |
|  |

**Qu Yuan** (c. 340 BC – 278 BC) was a Chinese poet and aristocrat. He lived in the State of Chu during the Warring States period. He is known for his patriotism and work in classical poetry and verses. He wrote *Chu Ci* anthropology (also called *The Songs of the South* or *Songs of Chu*). *Chu Ci* and *Shi Jing* are usually called some of the greatest Chinese verses. He is also remembered because he may have been connected to the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival.

There are not many historical details about Qu Yuan's. Historians are not entirely sure if he wrote many of the *Chu Ci*. However, he is widely thought to have written "The Lament," a *Chu Ci* poem. The first mention to Qu Yuan is in a poem written in 174 BC by Jia Yi. Jia Yi was an official from Luoyang. He was slandered by other officials and was sent to Changsha by Emperor Wen of Han. While traveling, he wrote a poem about how "Qu Yuan" had something similar happen to him. Eighty years later, the first known biography of Qu Yuan's life was in Han dynasty historian Sima Qian's *Records of the Grand Historian*. However, these records have some contradictions about his details.

## Related pages

* Dragon Boat Festival
* Tianwen-1

* Chang, H.K.; Ye Lang; Fei Zhengang; Wang Tianyou, eds. (2007), "Qu Yuan", *China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization*, Kowloon: City University of Hong Kong Press, pp. 205–6, ISBN 9789629371401
* Davis, Albert Richard, ed. (1970), *The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse*, London: Penguin Books.
* Guo Moruo (1952), 《屈原》 [*Qu Yuan*], Beijing: Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe. (in Chinese)
* Hartman, Charles (1986). "Ch'ü Yüan 屈原". In Nienhauser, William H. Junior (ed.). *The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Volume 1*. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 352. ISBN 0-253-32983-3.
* Hawkes, David (1959), *Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South, an Ancient Chinese Anthology*, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
* Hawkes, David (1974), "The Quest of the Goddess", *Studies in Chinese Literary Genres*, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 42–68, ISBN 0-520-02037-5.
* Hinton, David (2008), *Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology*, New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, ISBN 978-0-374-10536-5.
* Kern, Martin (2010). "Early Chinese literature, Beginnings through Western Han". In Owen, Stephen (ed.). *The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375*. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–115. ISBN 978-0-521-11677-0.
* Knechtges, David R. (2010). "Qu Yuan 屈原". In Knechtges, David R.; Chang, Taiping (eds.). *Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Part One*. Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 4: China, volume 25/1. Leiden: Brill. pp. 745–749. doi:10.1163/9789047444664\_002. ISBN 978-90-04-19127-3.
* Wen Yiduo (1956), "人民的詩人一屈原 [*Rénmín de Shīrén—Qū Yuán, Qu Yuan: The People's Poet*]", 《神話與詩》 [*Shénhuà yú Shī, Mythology & Poetry*], Guji Chubanshe. (in Chinese)
* Yip Wai-lim (1997), *Chinese Poetry: An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres*, Durham: Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-1946-2.
* Zhang Zongyi (1957), 《屈原舆楚辭》 [*Qū Yuán yú Chǔcí, Qu Yuan and the Songs of Chu*], Changchun: Jilin Renmin Chubanshe. (in Chinese)

* Sima Qian (1993) [c. 90s BCE]. *Records of the Grand Historian*. Translated by Watson, Burton (Rev. ed.). New York: Columbia Univ. Press. ISBN 0-231-08164-2.
* Schneider, Laurence A. (1980). *A Madman of Ch'u: The Chinese Myth of Loyalty and Dissent*. Berkeley: University of California Press.
* Waley, Arthur (1973). *The Nine Songs; a Study of Shamanism in Ancient China*. San Francisco: City Lights Books. ISBN 0-87286-075-2.
* Watson, Burton (1962). *Early Chinese Literature*. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231086714. `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

## Other websites

* "Qu Yuan (Chu Yuan), the great poet"
* "This article has photos of Qu Yuan's hometown before it was submerged by the dams project"
* "The Dragon Boat Festival" (article copied from Volume 1, number 2 of the newsletter of Families with Children from China of the San Francisco Bay Area)