Chu Ci, sometimes also called Sao style or Chu Ci style, is a literary style created by the poets of the Chu State during the Warring States Period represented by Qu Yuan. During the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang compiled the works of Qu Yuan, Song Yu and others into a collection and named it "Chu Ci". Chu Ci also became the name of a collection of poems. The Songs of Chu also include other Chu works besides this collection of poems. In the early Western Han Dynasty, it was a general term for works with Chu characteristics.
Xiao Yuncong's Illustrated Li Sao Illustrated Classics
The representative writers of Chu Ci include Qu Yuan, Song Yu and others. Most of the other works such as Tang Le and Jing Zai have not been handed down. Qu Yuan, the main author of Chu Ci, has chapters such as "Li Sao", "Nine Songs", "Nine Chapters", and "Tian Wen". After Liu Xiang compiled "Chu Ci", Wang Yitzeng added his own "Nine Thoughts", which became 17 chapters, and annotated the whole book, forming "Chu Ci Chapters and Sentences". Wang Yi's "Chu Ci Chapters" preserved today include works by Jia Yi, Huainan Xiaoshan (the pen name of Huainan King Liu An's disciple), Dongfang Shuo, Zhuang Ji, Wang Bao, Liu Xiang and others.
"Sikuquanshu·General Catalog" says: "At the beginning, Liu Xiangpei collected Qu Yuan's "Li Sao", "Nine Songs", "Tian Wen", "Nine Chapters", "Yuan Yu" and "Bu Ju" , "The Fisherman", Song Yu's "Nine Debates" and "Calling the Soul", Jing Chao's "Dazhao", Jia Yi's "Cherishing the Oath", Huainan Xiaoshan's "Calling the Hermit", Dongfang Shuo's "Seven Admonitions", Yan Ji's "Sorrowing Time" "Ming", Wang Bao's "Nine Huais" and Liu Xiang's "Nine Sighs", which are composed of 16 volumes of "Chu Ci", and are the ancestors of the collection. "Xu", 17 volumes, each with its own annotation. "Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty had 3 volumes of "Annotations to the Songs of Chu". It is the first in the collection of Sikuquanshu.
Among his various works, the works of Qu Yuan and Song Yu have attracted the most attention. The author of some chapters is unknown. For example, "Calling the Soul" in Volume 79 of Yiwen Leiju, Liang Shenjiong's "Guihun Fu" is considered to be "Qu Yuan's work", but Zhu Xi agrees with Wang Yi's statement in "Annotations to the Songs of Chu" that Qu Yuan All are works by Song Yu.