A rhyme form created by the Chu people represented by Qu Yuan during the Warring States Period in China. The name Chu Ci was first seen in Sima Qian's "Historical Records: Biography of Curious Officials" in the early Western Han Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, Chu Ci was also called Ci or Ci Fu. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang compiled 16 works by Qu Yuan and Song Yu, as well as works by Huainan Xiaoshan, Dongfang Shuo, Wang Bao, Liu Xiang and others in the Han Dynasty that imitated Qu Yuan and Song Yu, and named it "Songs of Chu". The Songs of Chu then became the name of a collection of poems. Since Qu Yuan's "Li Sao" is the representative work of "Chu Ci", Chu Ci is also called Sao or Sao style.
"Chu Ci" book and photo (published in the sixth year of Jiading, Southern Song Dynasty)
Chu Ci was developed on the basis of Chu folk songs through processing and refinement, and has a rich local flavor. feature. Due to differences in geography and language environment, the Chu State has had its unique local music since ancient times, which was called Nanfeng and Nanyin in ancient times. It also has its unique folk songs, such as "Chu People's Song" and "Yue Song" recorded in "Shuo Yuan". "People's Song" and "Canglang Song"; more importantly, the Chu State has a long history, and witchcraft is prevalent in Chu. Chu people entertain the gods with singing and dancing, which preserves a large number of myths, and poetry and music develop rapidly, making Chu folk songs full of The original religious atmosphere. All these influences make Chu Ci have the unique tone and phonology of Chu State, and at the same time, it has a profound romanticism color and a strong witchcraft culture color. It can be said that the emergence of Chu Ci is inseparable from the influence of local folk songs of Chu State and the cultural tradition of Chu State.
At the same time, Chu Ci is the product of the combination of Chu culture in the south and Central Plains culture in the north. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Chu State, which had always been called Jingman, became increasingly powerful. In the process of striving to dominate the Central Plains and competing for hegemony among the princes, it had frequent contacts with northern countries, promoting extensive cultural exchanges between the north and the south. Chu State was also deeply influenced by the culture of the northern Central Plains. It is this convergence of northern and southern cultures that gave birth to great poets like Qu Yuan and colorful and great poems like "Chu Ci".
"Chu Ci" occupies an important position in the history of Chinese poetry. Its appearance broke the silence of two or three centuries after "The Book of Songs" and made it shine in the poetry world. Later generations also referred to the Book of Songs and the Songs of Chu as Feng and Sao. Feng refers to the style of the Fifteen Kingdoms, representing the "Book of Songs", which is full of realism; Sao refers to "Li Sao", representing "Chu Ci", which is full of romanticism. Feng and Sao became the two major schools of realism and romanticism in Chinese classical poetry.
The earliest extant annotated version of "Chu Ci" is "Chu Ci Zhangju" written by Wang Yi of the Eastern Han Dynasty. "Sikuquanshu General Catalog" says: "In the beginning, Liu Xiangpei collected Qu Yuan's "Li Sao", "Nine Songs", "Tian Wen", "Nine Chapters"... and each annotated them." But Liu Xiang compiled "Chu" The original 16 volumes of "Ci" have been lost. "Chu Ci Zhang Ju" is based on Liu Xiang's "Chu Ci". In addition to providing a relatively complete explanation of Chu Ci, it also provides relevant original information. On the basis of "Chapter and Sentences of Chu Ci", Hong Xingzu of the Southern Song Dynasty also wrote "Supplementary Notes to Chu Ci". After that, Zhu Xi in the Southern Song Dynasty wrote "Collected Commentary on the Songs of Chu", Wang Fuzhi in the early Qing Dynasty wrote "General Commentary on the Songs of Chu", Jiang Ji in the Qing Dynasty wrote "Shandai Pavilion Commentary on the Songs of Chu", and so on. Based on their own opinions, they did a lot of compilation, textual research, annotation, and commentary.
Chu Ci can be said to be the first to extensively use comparison and xing techniques in political satire. "Chu Ci" focuses more on religious politics and personal expression.
A poetry style that emerged in the Chu State during the Warring States Period. The name "Chu Ci" first appeared in the early Western Han Dynasty. The Han people sometimes call it "Ci" for short, or even "Ci Fu" in succession. And because the most representative work of Chu Ci is Qu Yuan's "Li Sao", later generations also use "Sao" to refer to Chu Ci. For example, the "Sao" category in Xiao Tong's "Selected Works" and the "Bian Sao" chapter in Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long" are for the entire Chu Ci. Since the Han Dynasty, "Chu Ci" has become the title of the collection of works by Qu Yuan and others.
Chu Ci originated from the ballads of the Chu region in the Jianghuai River Basin of China. It has some influence from the Book of Songs, but it is directly related to ballads native to the south. Songs have long existed in the Chu region. According to Liu Xiang's "Shuo Yuan", there were "Yue People's Song" and "Chu People's Song" in about the 6th century BC. The Analects of Confucius records that Confucius once heard the "Jieyu Song", and "Mencius" also contains the "Ruzi Song" and so on. However, these Chu ballads only exist in historical records. It was only in the middle of the Warring States Period, after a series of works by Qu Yuan and others appeared in the Chu literary world, that Chu Ci formed a literary style.
The main author of Chu Ci is Qu Yuan. He created immortal works such as "Li Sao", "Nine Songs", "Nine Chapters", and "Tianwen". Under Qu Yuan's influence, Chu State produced some Chu Ci authors. According to "Historical Records", there are Song Yu, Tang Le, Jing Cha and others. The existing collection of "Chu Ci" mainly contains works by Qu Yuan and Song Yu; most of the works by Tang Le and Jing Cha have not been handed down.
Qin Xing, Chu Ci has not yet developed. In the early Han Dynasty, Chu's literature and art were revived. This is probably directly related to the Han royal family and ministers Duochu people. Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, was from Chu, and his "Great Wind Song" and other works were the sounds of Chu. His favorite concubine, Mrs. Qi, knew how to dance in Chu, and he personally sang Chu songs for her. Several emperors in the early Western Han Dynasty "conquered the world for those who could be Chu Ci".
In this context, on the one hand, Qu Yuan's works were valued, and on the other hand, people who were familiar with Chu Ci were also favored. For example, "Historical Records·Biographies of Cool Officials" records that Zhu Maichen "was fortunate to have Chu Ci and (Zhuang) help, and he served in the middle , as Taizhong doctor". In addition, many people were active in the imperial court and vassal kingdoms and engaged in writing in Chu Ci style. In Wang Yi's "Chu Ci Chapters", there are also preserved works by Jia Yi, Huainan Xiaoshan, Dongfang Shuo, Zhuang Ji, Wang Bao, Liu Xiang and others from the Western Han Dynasty. Although most of them only imitate Qu Yuan's works in form. Some even "become moaners as if they had no pain" (Zhu Xi's "Dialectics of Chu Ci"), but from this we can get a glimpse of the degree to which Chu Ci was valued at that time.
The characteristics of Chu Ci were summarized by Huang Bosi of the Song Dynasty in the "Preface to the Correction of Chu Ci": "All the poets in the Song Dynasty wrote Chu language, wrote Chu sounds, recorded Chu places, and named Chu things. Therefore, it can be called the 'Chu Ci'" (see Volume 92 of "Song Wenjian"). This statement is correct. In addition, the historical legends, mythological stories, customs and customs involved in the works of Qu and Song in "Chu Ci", as well as the artistic methods used and the rich lyrical style, all have a distinct Chu cultural color. This is the basic characteristic of Chu Ci. They are an important part of the Chu culture that complements the Central Plains culture.
Chu Ci has become the general name for the works of Qu, Song and others around the early Western Han Dynasty. When "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" describe the events of the Western Han Dynasty, they either compare "Spring and Autumn" with "Chu Ci", or juxtapose "Six Arts" with "Chu Ci", which all show this point. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, in the third year of Emperor Cheng's reign in Heping (26 BC), Liu Xiang led the school's secretary, sorted out the works of Qu and Song, and began to compile "Songs of Chu". Although Zheng Xuan in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Guo Pu in the Jin Dynasty quoted Qu Yuan's works and sometimes referred to Chu Ci as "Li Sao" when annotating other classics, the "Chu Ci" as the name of the collection has been spread throughout the world. As for the number of chapters and volumes in the collection of "Chu Ci", Wang Yi once mentioned in "Chu Ci Chapters and Sentences": "Liu Xiangdian was caught collating the classics and divided them into sixteen volumes." "Sikuquanshu General Catalog" states Said: "At the beginning, Liu Xiangpei collected Qu Yuan's "Li Sao", "Nine Songs", "Tian Wen", "Nine Chapters", "Yuan Yu", "Divination", "The Fisherman", Song Yu's "Nine Bian", "Calling the Soul" ", Jing Zha's "Da Zhao", and Jia Yi's "Cherish the Oath", Huainan Xiaoshan's "Recruiting Hermits", Dongfang Shuo's "Seven Admonitions", Yan Ji's "Sorrow for Time", Wang Bao's "Nine Huai" and Liu Xiang's "Nine Huai". "Sigh", which is composed of 16 volumes of "Chu Ci", is the ancestor of the collection. Yi Youyi wrote "Jiu Si" and Ban Gu's "Xu", which are 17 volumes, and each of them is annotated. The 16 volumes of "Chu Ci" edited by Xiang have been lost for a long time. Only Wang Yi's 17-volume "Chu Songs" has been handed down to this day, and we can get a glimpse of the original version of "Chu Songs".
The first person to write a biography of the Chu Ci works was Liu An, the king of Huainan during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In the second year of Jianyuan (139 BC), he was ordered by Emperor Wu to write "The Story of Lisao". This book has been lost for a long time and is only quoted in fragments in Sima Qian's "Historical Records" and Ban Gu's "Preface to Lisao". Since Liu An, more and more people have annotated Chu Ci. Such as Ban Gu, Jia Kui, Ma Rong, etc., but these notes have not been handed down.
In the early Yuan Dynasty of Emperor An, Wang Yi wrote "Chapter and Sentences of Chu Ci". This is the oldest existing annotated version of "Chu Ci". Since then, scholars of all ages have done a lot of research on "Chu Ci" and produced many monographs.
"Chu Ci" occupies an important position in the history of Chinese poetry. "Poetry" and "Sao" are both called "Poetry" and "Sao", becoming the two major sources of Chinese classical poetry. In particular, Qu Yuan's works in "Chu Ci" embody the perfect unity of content and form with their profound thoughts, rich emotions, rich imagination, and magnificent diction. Its pictorial sustenance technique is not only used in the choice of words and sentences, but also in the conception of chapters, providing a creative model for future generations. And it had a profound impact on the subsequent formation of fu style, parallel prose, and five or seven character poems. As Liu Xie said: "The poets who wrote poems about their clothes and quilts are not of the same generation.
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