Expressing ambition with things and writing about people with things not only communicate things with me, but also integrate ancient and modern times, thus creating what A Qing dynasty Lin Yunming praised as "it seems that every sentence in two paragraphs is a gift of orange, but seeing (bending) the original and the orange can't tell one from another, and they set each other off as an interesting mirror" (Chu Ci Deng).
Since then, the oranges in the South China contain rich cultural connotations of "independence and love for the motherland", and people with lofty ideals have been sung and imitated by people. This unique contribution belongs only to Qu Yuan, so Liu Chenweng in the Song Dynasty also called Qu Yuan the "ancestor of chanting things".
Creation background
Nine Chapters of Ode to an Orange is regarded as an early work of Qu Yuan, and scholars believe that it was written by the poet when he was a diplomat in Qi State. South China is rich in citrus, and Chu is called the hometown of citrus.
Han Shu called it "Jiangling Thousand Trees Orange", so it can be seen that Jiangling of Chu was famous for producing oranges as early as the Han Dynasty. However, citrus has a strange habit: only when it grows in the south can it produce sweet fruit, and if it moves to the north, it can only get bitter and astringent oranges.
Yanzi Chunqiu records that "those born in Huainan are oranges, and those born in Huaibei are oranges", which is the case. This can be said to be a great pity, but in the view of Qu Yuan, who loves his homeland deeply, this nature of "being born in the south" can be linked with his unswerving patriotic feelings. Therefore, during his exile in Du Ying, he honed his ambition by following the example of citrus in southern China and wrote this poem about objects with deep affection.