Regarding the content source of Nine Songs, Wang Yi thinks that Qu Yuan created it by imitating the folk sacrificial songs of Southern Chu. Zhu believes that Qu Yuan modified the sacrificial songs of Southern Chu and "fixed his words" (Songs of Chu). Hu Shi, on the other hand, thinks that Nine Songs is an ancient "religious song and dance of Xiangjiang people" and "has nothing to do with the legend of Qu Yuan" (reading Chu Ci). Today, people learn more from Zhu.
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Wen Yiduo once "suspended" Nine Songs into a large-scale musical, which is quite enlightening for us to study the dramatic factors of Nine Songs. Although there are entertainment and performance factors in "Nine Songs", some chapters can form a certain plot, but not every god who sacrifices has an inevitable connection, and the whole "Nine Songs" cannot form a complete plot.
Wizards sometimes pretend to be gods and sometimes flatter them. Their purpose is to welcome the gods to the altar and get their blessings, not just to perform. So Jiuge can't be regarded as a complete musical.
In addition, although Nine Songs is based on sacrificial songs and music, Qu Yuan's literary creation cannot be ruled out. The existing "Nine Songs" mainly appears in the form of literary works, which is a poem in Sao style. To study the dramatic factors of nine songs, we should not stop at the nine songs themselves, but look at the entertainment and performance of this form in the process of folk sacrifice through nine songs.