There are different opinions on the reason why Qu Yuan committed suicide in Miluo. Why did Qu Yuan throw himself into the river? To sum up, there are ten main opinions.
1. Cynicism. This theory mainly believes that Qu Yuan hated the chaos of government and the confusion of the world and threw himself into the river. This statement began in the Han Dynasty. Ban Gu's "Preface to the Praise of Li Sao" says: "Qu Yuan's grief for the emperor was unclear, and his credibility was small. He couldn't bear the troubled times, so he threw himself into Miluo." Wang Yi's "Chapter of Chu Ci: Preface to Li Sao" said: "Qu Yuan left the grassland alone and recomposed "Nine Poems". "Chapter", Yuan Tian cited the saint to prove himself. In the end, he could not bear to live in troubled times with his innocence, so he went to Miluo and committed suicide. "Liu Xiang's "New Preface·Jie Shi" said: "Qu Yuan was ill in the dark and chaotic world. Wen hei hei, he regards right as wrong and pure as turbid. He cannot bear to be seen in the world and will throw himself into the abyss. "In addition, from relevant historical records and Qu Yuan's works, it can also be seen that Qu Yuan was extremely resentful of the unclear government and the turbidity of the world. For example, "Huaisha": "I don't know that the world is turbid, and people's hearts cannot be called dirty." What is even more obvious is "The Fisherman": "The whole world is turbid and I am alone pure. Everyone is drunk and I am alone awake. This is how I see release! ... I would rather go to the Xiang River and be buried in the belly of a river fish, and I can make it bright and clear." White, and covered with the dust of the world?" Sima Qian also recorded this in "The Biography of Qu Yuan". It can be seen that Sima Qian's views on the reasons why Qu Yuan threw himself into the river generally fall into this category.
2. The theory of martyrdom for the country. This theory began in the Han Dynasty and has flourished since the Qing Dynasty. Ban Gu's "Preface to the Praise of Li Sao" says: "The country will be in danger, and my loyalty... I surrender to Miluo." Song Zhuxi's "Preface to the Li Sao Sutra" says: "I couldn't bear to see that my country would be in danger, so I went to the abyss of Miluo and drowned myself. "The preface to "The Songs of Chu·Nine Chapters" by Wang Fuzhi of the Qing Dynasty goes: "Zhu Qingxiang was so confused that he fled to the south of the Yangtze River, abandoning his old capital and moving to Shouchun. He must perish, there is no hope left, he is determined to sink himself." Wang Euzhi believed that Qu Yuan saw that the capital of Ying fell and the country was ruined, so he could not bear the death of his country and threw himself into the river to die for his country.
Guo Moruo's "Modern Translation of Qu Yuan's Fu" (1) said: "Qu Yuan was a man of strong reason and loved his motherland... His suicide must have had a more serious motive. The Second King of Qingxiang The national calamity in the eleventh year was very serious. At that time, not only the capital of Ying was destroyed, but also Dongting, Wuzhu, and Jiangnan were lost. The king of Qingxiang fled to the northeast, so he barely survived in Chencheng. , the Chu State was almost destroyed. Qu Yuan, who fled south and suffered oppression, must have seen that the country was irreparably broken, so he finally committed suicide. "Guo Moruo is the main representative of the theory of "martyrdom for the country" in modern Qu studies. Guo Moruo reiterated his theory of "martyrdom for the country" many times. In "Qu Yuan Kao" written in 1942, he said: "He painted all his blood and tears into great poems, sacrificed his life for his motherland, and fought for the survival of the country. This is the reason why we worship him , is also the reason why he is great." He said in "A Brief Introduction to Qu Yuan" (2): "When the capital of Chu was captured by Bai Qi, he once wrote a poem in mourning for the capital...see The future of Chu State was desperate, and on May 5th of this year (lunar calendar), he finally jumped into Miluo, Hunan and committed suicide." He also said in "The Great Patriotic Poet Qu Yuan" (3): "Qu Yuan's suicide is a fact. "Qu Yuan" (4) by Zhan Antai said: "Qu Yuan was one of the most progressive elements among the aristocrats of the Chu State during the Warring States Period. He loved the motherland, cared about the people, was loyal to his own upright ideas, and fought everything with his selfless spirit. The evil forces fought to the end, and finally he threw himself into the Miluo River east of the Yangtze River and died for his country." You Guoen and Lu Yongpin also followed this theory.
3. The theory of cleanliness. This theory comes from poems such as "The Fisherman", "Li Sao", "Huaisha" and "Shejiang". "The Fisherman" has "An Neng can observe the body, and the warmth of love screams!", "An Neng can use the bright white, but it is covered with the dust of the world!" "Li Sao" has "Fu Qingbai will die straight." . Sima Guang's poem "Qu Ping" of the Song Dynasty said: "White jade is only pure, and the orchid is not called fragrant." Sima Qian's "Biography of Qu Yuan" also commented that "his ambition is pure, so he is called Wu Fang".
Pan Xiaolong pointed out in the article "The truth about Qu Yuan's sinking into the Yangtze River from the accounts of Han people" (5) that Qu Yuan "in order to maintain his pure integrity and defend the ideal he pursued throughout his life, he therefore solemnly declared "I don't know that the world is turbulent, and the human heart is indescribable. If you know that you will die, don't love me. If you tell me clearly, I will think you are like this." Finally, with endless regrets, he threw himself into the Miluo River. Middle - This is the poet's angry confession about why he sank into the river in "Huaisha" before his death. "
Jiang Liangfu's "Lectures on the Modern Interpretation of Chu Ci" (6) said: " Why did Qu Yuan dive? Qu Yuan was innocent. "Fu Qingbai died straight." "Zhi" is the word "virtue" of morality. That is, I have this virtue, which was innately acquired by my ancestor Gao Yang. He is a member of the Chu family. I have this kind of cultivation. Since "the whole world is turbulent and I am alone in being pure", what can I do? "Guangming" means "big", and "light" means "big". This is Qu Yuan's highest ideal. 4. Corpse Admonition. This theory is represented by Wang Zhijiang. In his article "On the Death of Qu Yuan" (7), he believed that "party members" were rampant in the Chu State and the country was in danger. Qu Yuan had been exiled and was unable to remonstrate with the King of Chu. However, Qu Yuan's loyalty was not lost, and he was unable to be loyal to the country and people, nor to awaken the king of Chu, so he had no choice but to resort to the method of corpse remonstrance and throw himself into Miluo to die.
5. The theory of granting death. This theory is represented by Wu Yufang.
Wu Yufang pointed out in two articles "Qu Yuan did not commit suicide" and "Besides, Qu Yuan did not commit suicide" (8) that there are many people who committed suicide, hanged themselves, committed suicide, and committed suicide in historical records. , torture and death. Moreover, in ancient times, there was a custom that "the punishment is not good for the officials". Therefore, "the ministers committed suicide if they were guilty." This was the "excellent punishment" of "giving death but not killing and humiliating". Qu Yuan not only served as a Sanlv official, but also as a Zuo disciple second only to Ling Yin. Qu Yuan's exile was actually a death sentence in disguise. Wu Yufang also said that Sima Qian's "Historical Records: Biography of Qu Yuan" said that "exile" and "move" were both punishable. The death penalty in disguise is the death penalty.
6. Murder theory. This theory originated in modern times, represented by "Qu Yuan died of murder" signed "Dake" published in the 9th issue of "Shanghai Caifeng" in 1991. The article believes that Qu Yuan was a victim of secret love. The "Mrs. Xiang" he loved and was most obsessed with was Zheng Xiu, the beloved concubine of King Huai of Chu. She had an affair with Zheng Xiu and was exiled. King Qingxiang, the son of King Huai of Chu, After he succeeded to the throne, Qu Yuan's political enemies murdered him. The assassin chased Qu Yuan in a dragon boat on the Miluo River, but Qu Yuan escaped quickly in another dragon boat. Finally, the assassin put him into a sack and threw him into the river, saying that this was the scene of dragon boat racing and making rice dumplings. The explanation of the Dragon Boat Festival is: "Duan" means correctness and clarification, "Wu" is the pseudonym for "disobedience", and "Duanwu" means clarifying lies. Subsequently, "Southeast and Northwest" reprinted the full text in the 12th issue of 1991. In 1999, Hubei's "Three Gorges Evening News" published Ma Jian's "New Explanation of the Cause of Qu Yuan's Death", repeating this tune. The 78th issue of "Tourism Herald" also published such a "love murder" article. This statement can be described as low-sentiment, made out of nothing, and shoddy. In 1991, "China Culture News" published an article "Qu Yuan cannot be jokingly told", criticizing the "joking" that was based on nonsense and sensationalism, calling it a falsification of folklore and a pretentious act.
7. The Savior said. Also known as the "Easy to Conquer the Savior" theory. This theory originated from the folklore in Zigui, Hubei. Huang Dan's article "A New Theory of the Cause of Qu Yuan's Death" (9) said that in Qu Yuan's birthplace - Leping, Zigui County, Hubei Province, there is a folk legend: It is said that after Qu Yuan was slandered by a traitor, he was exiled to the wilderness of Yuanxiang by King Huai of Chu. land. After King Huai died in Qin, King Qingxiang succeeded to the throne. At that time, the Chu palace had fallen into disgrace. The Qin army often invaded Chu and occupied many places in Chu. Later, they captured the capital of Ying and hunted down King Qingxiang. King Qingxiang regretted very much that he should not have been close to Qin in the first place, and he was not willing to let Chu's nearly 800-year-old foundation be destroyed in his own hands. So he thought of Qu Yuan, who was exiled in the Miluo River area, and went to him to discuss a plan to save the country... Qin After hearing the news, the army followed closely. At this critical moment, Qu Yuan changed clothes with King Qingxiang, and jumped into the Miluo River under the sight of the Qin army. The Qin army watched as the "King of Qingxiang" sank into the river. The pursuit was stopped and King Qingxiang was able to escape. This article demonstrates and elaborates on the reliability of the legendary story of "The Yi-Conquered Savior" and the consistency of the "Savior Theory" in line with Qu Yuan's loyal and patriotic thoughts.
8. The theory of martyrdom. Hao Zhida and Wang Xisan proposed in the book "The Soul of Oriental Poetry" (10) that Qu Yuan's self-destruction was "martyrdom." They believed that this move was Qu Yuan's solemn exploration and practice of death consciousness and the final sublimation of Qu Yuan's personality power. He believes that Qu Yuan firmly believed in the power of morality and believed in the moral standards he recognized. Everyone in the world can and should do it. He also pointed out that "martyrdom" has its own one-sided nature. The book says: "Quzi's strong sense of mission for the times, where he 'takes responsibility for himself' and 'assists the situation with Dao', and has great responsibilities placed upon him, combined with the filthy darkness of the real world and the one-sidedness of his own cognition, made him fall into A kind of painful and inextricable thinking." He also said: "Qu Zi's choice of death is not the natural destination of his life, but an inevitable choice after his active exploration of life. It is the sublimation and sublimation of Qu Zi's noble personality. The final realization."
Some contemporary scholars believe that Qu Yuan's "martyrdom" has certain flaws. Qu Delai believes in "A New Theory of Qu Yuan's "Hometown Feelings", Temperament and Personality" (11) , the so-called "perfect personality" pursued by Qu Yuan includes two aspects: "inner beauty" and "cultivation". The "inner beauty" praised by Qu Yuan essentially maintains human value on the patriarchal blood relationship, witchcraft consciousness and witchcraft customs; "inner beauty" is a symbol of Chu's inherent primitive perceptual culture. The "cultivation" emphasized by Qu Yuan belongs to Confucian moral ethics. This consciousness maintains human value in moral self-discipline and personality perfection. This is a product of the development of rational culture in the Spring and Autumn Period. It is difficult for these two different cultural concepts to coexist in a complete personality. Therefore, this "dilemma pursuit" doomed him to inevitable failure and life tragedy. Huang Lingeng's article "On the Death of Qu Yuan" (12) said that Qu Yuan's suicide by Shen Xiang was not so much a social tragedy as a tragedy of his personality defects.
9. Political tragedy. Feng Chuan proposed in the third volume of "Literary Interpretation·Qu Yuan and Narcissism" of "The Way of Survival of Humanities Scholars" (13) that Qu Yuan's tragedy was prominently manifested in both external political thoughts and internal moral ideals. The sharp conflict between them and the imposition of personal ideals on reality doomed Qu Yuan to failure from the beginning. Success is something that Qu Yuan's inner divinity cannot allow - success means the abandonment and annihilation of divinity, while failure may cause Qu Yuan to manifest his inner divinity in other ways.
In "The Hermit and Liberation" (14), Leng Chengjin believes that Qu Yuan has always had two misunderstandings about Confucian concepts: one is that he believes that kingly virtue and politics are unified with the reality of history; the other is that making contributions is the only way to achieve personal self-sufficiency. . In fact, the monarch and the saint, the country and the motherland are two fundamentally different concepts. The monarch is an accidental and realistic form of the social order, and is only an external mark; the saint-king is the realistic manifestation of a cultural ideal and is The externalization of inner qualities; the country is just an artificial form of political consciousness, which has no necessary connection with the ideals of American politics, and has no emotional significance; while the motherland is an emotional concept, the historical and cultural accumulation of a nation's emotions, and has absolute emotions. Meaning and sanctity without argument. Qu Yuan's pain lies in confusing the difference between the two. Qu Yuan died to find out the truth and meaning of the real country and king, demonstrated the inconsistency between ideal and reality and the absurdity of reality, and had a great warning effect on people.
10. The theory of sacrifice for Chu culture. Yang Chunshi believed in the article "The Elegy of Chu Culture and the Tragedy of Qu Yuan" (15) that the Chu State was a relatively independent cultural entity. At the end of the Warring States Period, under the pressure of the development of northern culture represented by the Qin State, the Chu State was The southern culture represented is in obvious decline and is in danger of being submerged. As an elite of Chu culture, Qu Yuan had a premonition of the crisis of Chu culture, but was unable to save it, so he eventually died. Qu Yuan's poem has also become the elegy of Chu culture. It is under this situation that Qu Yuan's Fu reaches the transcendence of reason and acquires profound aesthetic significance. At the same time, the culture of his motherland was the foundation for Qu Yuan to settle down and live his life. He grew up sucking the milk of culture. He could not tolerate the destruction of Chu culture, let alone survive in the heterogeneous culture of the north. The Legalist culture of Qin advocated violence, abandoned benevolence and righteousness, was ruthless in reason, suppressed individuality, was utilitarian and worldly, and annihilated faith. The Chu culture conquered Qu Yuan with its blood ties, passion and imagination, mythology and poetry. Loyalty and love for Chu culture goes beyond the obligation to the king, the responsibility to the country, the affiliation to the clan, and the nostalgia for the hometown. It is the entire connotation of Qu Yuan's life. The motivation for writing Qu Yuan's Fu was to express his feelings of loyalty and attachment, to relieve his worries and resentments, and to express his determination to share the same fate as Chu culture. Yang Chunshi pointed out that the tragedy of Qu Yuan is that he became a martyr of a backward and ultimately drowned culture. The fundamental reason for Qu Yuan's death was the collapse of his spiritual pillar - his belief in the way of heaven. He did not place the basis of his survival on free choice, but died for tradition.
Among the above ten theories, the most widely circulated is the "martyrdom theory", and the third one is the "cynical theory". Other theories have not been recognized, especially the "murder theory" theory of "murder for love", which seems to be beyond the scope of academic discussion or research and can be regarded as passing smoke and nonsense. It should arouse the vigilance of academic circles and not be fooled by jokes.