First of all, from the artistic characteristics of Chu Ci, it is closely related to the primitive myths of Chu and religious activities related to witchcraft and prayer. From Qu Yuan's works "Nine Songs", "Evocation of Soul" and "Tian Wen", we can see that this aspect has a distinct brand.
Secondly, the emergence of Chu Ci is also closely related to the music and folk songs of Chu. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the music and folk songs of Chu State were called "Nanyin" or "Nanfeng". As a new poetic style with strong local color, Chu Ci has many unique features compared with The Book of Songs in content and form.
From the content, there is a strong romantic spirit in the works of Chu Ci, which mainly focuses on expressing the author's subjective feelings and his emotions inspired by social and natural phenomena. They no longer focus on the detailed description of the real world, but use the imagination of genius to create a colorful fantasy world, so that unyielding souls can find a way out in the fanatical struggle and rush to the light.
There is a strong tragic color in the works of Chu Ci. Although there are many mournful poems in The Book of Songs, they all mean "to mourn without hurting, to complain without anger". Chu Ci inherited the inherent tragic mood in Chu Ci, and rendered a picture of passionate sadness with heavy pen and ink. Religious witchcraft, as the main theme of Chu Ci, contains a lot of myths and legends and witchcraft etiquette, and expresses the author's inner feelings through their description. In artistic expression, the length of Chu Ci is enlarged, the capacity is larger and the expressive force is stronger.
Most of the poems in The Book of Songs are essays, which are concise and compassionate, but not grand enough. However, Chu Ci has gradually become more and more massive, showing a brand-new atmosphere. Chuci inherited and developed the traditional metaphor in The Book of Songs, and created a series of new images. Metaphors in The Book of Songs are generally listed separately, while metaphors in Songs of the South are colorful, complicated and changeable. As far as sentence patterns are concerned, The Songs of the South broke the cage of the four-character structure of The Book of Songs and replaced it with flexible and free sentence patterns with different levels, thus forming a free and unrestrained poetic language.
As a new form of poetry, the Ci of Chu first had a certain influence on later literature in style, which was manifested in the appearance of a large number of imitations, and played a certain role in promoting the development of other styles, especially Han Fu. And its influence on later literature is mainly manifested in ideological content and artistic techniques.
In his works, the enterprising spirit, indomitable spirit of struggle, great personality of loving the motherland, loyalty to ideals, sympathy for the people, and distinct attitude of hating traitors have always influenced and inspired progressive literati in past dynasties. Chu Ci embodies a strong romantic spirit, which coexists with the realistic literary tradition in China's ancient poems represented by The Book of Songs, and has a great influence on later lyric poets. The rich expression, structure and gorgeous rhetoric of Chu Ci also have great influence on later literature.