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Qu Yuan Wikipedia

Image:Qu_Yuan.jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait of Qu Yuan by Australian Chinese artist Zhang Cuiying

Qu Yuan (Simplified Chinese: 屈原; Traditional Chinese: 屈原; Pinyin: qū y?an) (340 BC - 278 BC) was a China|Chinese patriotic poet from southern Chu (state)|Chu during the Warring States Period. His works are mostly found in an anthology of poetry known as Chu Ci.

Qu Yuan was a Political minister|minister in the government of the state of Chu, descended of nobility and a champion of political loyalty and truth eager to maintain the Chu state's sovereignty. Qu Yuan advocated a policy of alliance with the other kingdoms of the period against the hegemonic state of Qin, which threatened to dominate them all. The Chu monarch|king, however, fell under the influence of other corrupt, jealous ministers who slandered Qu Yuan, and banished his most loyal counselor. It is said that Qu Yuan returned first to his family's home town. In his exile, he spent much of this time collecting legends and rearranging folk odes while travelling the countryside, producing some of the greatest poetry in Chinese literature while expressing his fervent love for his state and his deepest concern for its future.

According to legend, his anxiety brought him to an increasingly troubled state of health; during his depression, he would often talk walks near a certain well, during which he would look upon his reflection in the water and he his own person, thin and gaunt. In the legend, this well became known as the "Face Reflection Well." Today in on a hillside in Xiangluping in Hubei province's Zigui, there is a well which is considered to be the original well from the time of Qu Yuan.

In 278 BC, learning of the upcoming devastation of his country from invasion by a neighbouring warring state, Qu Yuan is said to have written the length poem of lamentation called "Lament for Ying" and later to have waded into the Miluo river in today's Hunan Province holding a great rock in order to commit ritual suicide as a form of protest against the political corruption|corruption of the era.

The common people, learning of his suicide, rushed out in their fishing boats to the middle of the river and tried desperatedly to save him. They beat drums and splashed water with their paddles in order to keep the fish and evil spirits from his body, and later on, they scattered rice into the water to prevent him from suffering hunger - alternatively in order to feed the fishes in the river so that they would not eat his body up. However, late one night, the spirit of Qu Yuan appeared before his friends and told them that the rice meant for him was being intercepted by a huge Chinese dragon|river dragon. He asked his friends to wrap their rice into three-cornered silk packages to ward off the dragon. This has been a traditional food ever since known as zongzi, although they are wrapped in bamboo leaves instead of silk. In order to commemorate him, people held a Dragon boat race every year on the day of his suicide.

Up till today people still eat rice dumplings and participate in dragon boat racesto commemorate him on the Duan Wu festival, the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar.

Category:Chinese poets
da:Qu Yuan fr:Qu Yuanja:屈原 zh:屈原

Last Modified:   2005-04-13