Its name has a double meaning: as far as music is concerned, Li Sao may be the name of a popular song in Chu State. You Guoen said, "Songs of the South of China" has the article that "Fuxi drives arguments, and Chu only labors", and Wang Yi noted that "driving arguments and labors are both famous." "Lao Shang" and "Li Sao" are disyllabic words or homonyms. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the Fu family copied Qu Yuan's Nine Chapters, which was called Pan Prison Worry from harmony to harmony. "Prison" and "worry" are overlapping words, which Zhao Wei interpreted as "complaining". Later generations often say that venting grievances is "complaining", which is probably from here. "(Essays on Songs of the South) This statement is accurate. Qu Yuan's creation draws a rich source from the folk literature of Chu State. Since the content of his work is "writing Chu language, writing Chu sound, gathering Chu land and writing Chu objects" (Preface to the Song of Huang Yi), it is completely understandable that the name of his work is copied from the old topic of folk songs. Of course, this word is not meaningless. Sima Qian's Biography of Qu Yuan in Historical Records quoted Liu An as saying: "Those who write Li Sao are still' away from troubles'." Li Sao means "leaving sorrow", that is, the above-mentioned "labor business", "prison worry" and "grumbling" are synonyms for voice change and also express a kind of depressed mood. According to the legend in Historical Records, Qu Yuan wrote Li Sao with melancholy thoughts. The title of the manual is determined by the content of the work, and the musical meaning of the title is unified with the content of the work. "Leaving sorrow", "Leaving sorrow", "working for a business", "holding sorrow" and "complaining" are all conjunctions composed of disyllabic or rhyming words, but they have a complete meaning. Ban Gu's Preface to Zan Sao said: "Leaving is bitter; Sao, worry also. I know that I have been worried as a speech. " Wang Yi's "Songs of Chu" said: "Leave, don't also; Sao, hey. " Obviously, they are all footnotes to Sima Qian's sentence "Those who leave Sao are still worried", but they misunderstand Sima Qian's original intention. In addition, Xiang Anshi's "Xiang's Family History" said: "Chu said:" If you have bad morality and righteousness, you will be alienated. " Zhao Wei said:' SAO, worry; Leave, and so does the bank. "Gai Chu people's language has been like this since ancient times. Qu Yuan's Li Sao must have been given to stay away from the bank. " It is also to divide "Li" and "Sao" into two words. It is because the part of speech is unclear that the meanings of two words are combined into one meaning, so the understanding is different and there are many differences.
The original name of this article was Li Sao, and it was called Li Sao Jing in Wang Yi's Songs of Chu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. His explanation is: "stay, don't return; Sao, sorrow; Meridian, diameter also. Say that you have exiled yourself, you are still worried about it, and you are still admonishing you with the wind according to the right path. " There is no doubt that this statement is far-fetched. "Jing", of course, means classic. Li Sao is Qu Yuan's masterpiece. Add a word "Jing" under Li Sao, as Hong Xingzu said, "The ancients quoted those who had no words in Li Sao, and later generations covered their words and respected them as Jing." In addition, some people call it Sao for short. For example, Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long is a famous article called Distinguishing Sao. Some people even called Qu Yuan's works and later imitations of Qu Yuan "Sao Style". This also originated from Wang Yi, because in the chapter of Chu Ci, he called all the works that he thought were Qu Sao and all the works that imitated Qu Sao. Such as Jiuge, named "Nine Songs and Nine Debates of Li Sao", followed by "Nine Debates of Li Sao". Although these names have been together for a long time, they are illogical. Thirdly, this article is also called Li Sao Fu. This originated in the Han Dynasty, because the expression of "Han Fu" evolved from "Chu Ci", so in the eyes of Han people, all Qu Yuan's works belong to the category of "Fu". Sima Qian called Qu Yuan "Fu" (this biography), and Ban Gu recorded 25 pieces of Qu Yuan's works in Han Shu Literature and Art Annals, which was further called "Fu". In fact, "Fu" did not become a special literary form until the Han Dynasty. Because of the confusion between the concepts of "Ci" and "Fu" in Han Dynasty, it is inappropriate to call Qu Yuan's works "Fu".
There are many different opinions about the writing time of this article in the past and now. According to Records of the Historical Records, it was described after the doctor seized the manuscript from Shangguan, "Wang angered Qu Ping". But this does not mean this year; It just shows that Li Sao is the work of Qu Yuan after his political frustration. The time referred to here is extensive. But Li Sao was written in Chu Huaiwang's time, which is absolutely certain. What year is this year? As far back as two thousand years ago, Sima Qian felt the difficulty of insufficient literature and could not make an absolute judgment. Of course, we can't speculate subjectively today. However, at the prompt of Sima Qian, if we further explore, we can still find some news about this issue. In my opinion, since Li Sao is a lyric poem and its specific content is autobiographical, the narrative of objective events, the causes of personal experiences, the depth and breadth of emotions and the grandeur of creation all reveal the period of its own production: it can neither be a work of youth nor a creation of old age, and the most suitable period is only middle age around forty. The account of age in this article proves this point everywhere. We try to combine the sentences of "I'm afraid of the beauty dying" at the beginning, "Old Ran Ran is coming" at the end, and "I'm young when I'm not old" to confirm each other, so it's not difficult to get an overall understanding: if a teenager under 30 is sentimental, he won't say such old-fashioned words; However, it is not appropriate to use it as the keynote for people over 50, because it is far from "time is not over yet". The forties of Qu Yuan was the end of Chu Huaiwang. At that time, the state of Chu suffered many wars and defeats, and Wang Huai's opinion was not clear. The struggle between pro-Qin faction and anti-Qin faction in Chu government is very fierce. Finding the meaning of Li Sao is completely in line with the above background.