Chu Ci is the first collection of romantic poems in the history of China literature, which is said to be a new poetic style created by Qu Yuan. Songs of the South created a literary tradition in the poetic world, that is, all schools regarded as "romantic" poetic style today were inspired by it without exception, and drew spiritual and artistic nourishment from it. Songs of the South is also China's first collection of poems with an author. It was written by Qu Yuan and Hou Xue and edited by Liu Xiang in Han Dynasty.
I. Overview of contents:
Chu Ci is the earliest collection of romantic poems and the source of romantic literature. The name "Chu Ci" first appeared in Records of the Historian and Biography of Corrupt Officials. It can be seen that this name already existed in the early Han Dynasty at the latest. Its original meaning refers to Chu Ci, which later became a proper noun, and refers to the new poetic style represented by Qu Yuan's creation during the Warring States Period.
Chu Ci describes the mountains, rivers, people and historical customs of Chu with local rhymes of Chu, which has a strong regional cultural color. The book is mainly based on Qu Yuan's works, and other articles also inherit the form of Qu Fu, with unrestrained feelings and strange imagination.
Second, the assembly situation:
There is no doubt that Liu Xiang's Songs of the South is a collection of Songs of the South. As a new poetic style in Chu during the Warring States Period, "Chu Ci" has also been recognized. Then Chuci naturally existed before Chuci. The earliest record of Chu Ci is the sixty-second book of Records of the Historian, volume one hundred and twenty-two and biographies of cruel officials.
At the beginning of Han Dynasty, the collection of Chu Ci began. At that time, there were two groups of "Chu Ci" collectors: one was Wu Wang Liu Bi and his "children who entertained tourists"; Second, Liu An, king of Huainan, and his scholars. Liu An, the king of Huainan, was even ordered to write Biography of Li Sao. However, the contents of Biography of Li Sao are all lost except a few quotations from Ban Gu's narration of Li Sao, and I don't know the details.
In this context, Emperor Han Chengdi asked doctors to go to the secretarial school to find and compile the world's suicide note. "Hanshu" Volume 10 "The Age of Emperor" 10: "(Three years) Autumn and August. Dr Xiang, secretary of the school. Chen Nong, the messenger, asked for a suicide note. " In the autumn of 26 BC (the third year of peace), Liu Xiang was ordered to collect the world's suicide notes. This naturally includes the collection of works of Chu Ci.