[In the following essay, Chen-To discusses Chu Yuan's political career, banishment, and his legacy.]

Chu Yuan (340-278 B.C.) was one of the great poets of ancient China. He was famous not only for the soaring imagery of his verse but also for his love of country and people. This year, at the instance of the World Peace Council, he is being commemorated throughout the world along with Francois Rabelais of France, Jose Marti of Cuba and Copernicus of Poland—three other giants of human thought.

How the Chinese people themselves have long regarded Chu Yuan is evident from one striking fact.

On the fifth day of the fifth moon of the lunar calendar the Chinese people celebrate the famous 'Dragon-Boat Festival', (this year it fell on June 15). Wherever there are rivers magnificent dragon-boat races are held, and every home prepares a special sort of three-cornered boiled dumplings by wrapping glutinous rice in reed leaves. The dragon-boat races symbolize the people's attempts to rescue Chu Yuan when, driven into exile by injustice, he drowned himself in the Milo river in Hunan province in the year 278 B.C. The dumplings were originally thrown into the water both as a sacrificial offering to him and as food for the dragons so that they would not eat his body. Today, shorn of superstition, this popular custom continues. No other poet has been so long and so well loved and remembered.

Political Career

Chu Yuan was born in the state of Chu during the period of the Warring States (403-221 B.C.). There were then seven feudal kingdoms in China and a gigantic struggle for supremacy went on among them. Chin in the west was the strongest militarily. The other six kingdoms formed alliances to resist their common enemy, which were sometimes broken when one or another made a separate compromise with Chin.

The kingdom of Chu had been very large and powerful, but by the time of Chu Yuan it was losing ground to Chin as a result of the corruption of the king and his ministers who were completely absorbed in their selfish interests and pleasures. Its northwest regions bordered on Chin. The ingenious diplomats of Chin always managed to break up its defensive alliances.

As Minister of the Left—a post second only to that of prime minister—Chu Yuan had won the confidence of the king. He fully understood the political situation of the time and he strongly advocated an alliance with another state, Chi, where he had once been sent on a mission. But a great statesman of Chin named Chang Yi colluded with a political faction within Chu. This political force, headed by the Shangkuan Ta Fu and the king's younger son, Tzu Lan, succeeded in depriving Chu Yuan of his post.

Banishment and Death

In 299 B.C. the king of Chin invited the king of Chu to visit him. Chu Yuan strongly objected to this trip. But the ruler did not listen to his advice, went to Chin and was detained and died there. His son Hsiung Heng succeeded him. His younger brother Tzu-lan, Chu Yuan's political enemy, became the Prime Minister. The government rapidly deteriorated. Chu Yuan expressed grief and anger in his poems, in which there is a strong satirical vein.

The king was displeased and banished Chu Yuan from the capital. This was around 286 B.C., when Chu Yuan was already fifty-four years old. His political career was at an end.

For eight years he wandered about south of the Yangtze and finally settled near the Milo river, not far from Changsha, the present capital of Human province. Gravely concerned with the fate of his homeland, and his heart full of indignation, he wrote many beautiful poems charged with grief and wrath. His health gave way, he became extremely pale and haggard. He often walked beside the river with his hair hanging loose, reciting poems.

In the spring of 278 B.C., the fierce warrior Pai Chi of Chin took the capital of Chu and ordered his soldiers to set fire to the royal tombs. The news of this desecration came as a heavy blow to Chu Yuan who felt that it meant the end of the kingdom. He wrote two poems, Alas for Ying! (the capital of Chu) and Thinking of Sha (Changsha). On the fifth day of the fifth moon he clasped a large stone in his arms and leaped into the Milo river. He was sixty-two. The capital had fallen only three months before.

Poetic Heritage

Twenty-five great and beautiful poems by Chu Yuan have survived. His works took the form of the folk songs sung by the people of Chu just as the Book of Songs before him used the folk rhymes from the north of the Yangtze river. The songs of Chu were sincere and imaginative, with a soaring rhythm and unbroken cadence. It was said of them that they were "as fresh as the morning dew on the lotus leaf and the bright red rose opening to the morning sun". They had a clear bright music like pearls falling on a jade tray.

Chu Yuan's lyrical genius perfected these songs, giving them greater richness, beauty, grandeur and originality. He wrote of his own political failure and misfortunes. Deeply concerned with the future of the state of Chu and the sufferings of its people, he satirized the bad administration, and cursed the corruption and selfishness of the treacherous officials.

In the Li Sao he wrote:

I was climbing up into the bright sky
When my eyes saw suddenly my native land
 below;
My servant could not help looking sad, the
 horse also hesitated;
Hanging its head low and looking back
 repeatedly, it refused to go on.

and in the Chou Ssu

I thought of leaving my native country for a
  foreign land;
When I saw the suffering of the people, I
 repressed my impatience.

Chu Yuan was a very learned man. In his writing he drew upon historical studies, ancient myths and legends, observations of living things and natural phenomena. With his incomparably rich imagination, his sincerity and nobility of spirit and boundless and beautiful vocabulary, he organized and developed his knowledge of the past and the events of his time as the power of spring develops a great garden of luxuriant flowers.

The "Li Sao"

Chu Yuan's most important poem is the Li Sao. It contains 375 lines and 2,490 words and is the longest poem that has come down from ancient China. In it he speaks freely of his lineage, his life, his feelings and his political ideals. It is a beautiful autobiography written with a great depth of emotion. Such style, imagination, feeling and wealth of expressions are not to be found in the Book of Songs. Every line and every verse is saturated with Chu Yuan's hatred and reproach towards the decadent, dissipated and shameless noblemen of his time. The expression of his own misfortune, disappointment and grief gave voice to the dissatisfaction and anger of all the people of Chu. His personal failure reflected the oppression of what was just and the rampancy of flattery and sordidness.

In a few words, he gave the main theme of the Li Sao:

All that the traitors know is to seek for
  pleasure,
The road is dark and dangerous.
It is not my own misfortune that I fear,
But the failure of my country.

Again he sang:

I sigh deeply and my tears flow,
I am sad that the people are suffering.

His "Nine Stanzas" are nine poems written at various periods. Among these the Chou Ssu or "Spinning Out My Thoughts", the She Chiang or "Crossing the River", the Ai Ying or "Alas for Ying!" and the Huai Sha or "Thinking of Sha (Changsha)" have the greatest feeling. Their emotion is similar to that of the Li Sao, one of grief and melancholy. They are wild songs of lamentation from a tempestuous age.

The "Nine Songs"

The "Nine Songs" and Chao Hun or "Calling Back the Soul" were based on the religious songs of the people of Chu and were intended for ritual use. They were addressed to the best known, most worshipped gods of the time. Ancient sacrificial songs often described the love and admiration of men for these gods. But the poetic genius of Chu Yuan, by giving expression to his boundless sympathies and deep emotions, raises these ritual songs to rank with the greatest poetry of all ages.

The Kuo Shang, which describes the heroism of the men of Chu when they died on the battlefield resisting the enemies of their country, is a magnificent song of praise for the people of Chu. It also contains the best description of warfare that has come down to us from ancient China.

Holding spears made in the land of Wu,
 wearing armour of rhinoceros hide,
As the chariots of the enemy clash with ours,
 daggers are drawn to kill.
Battle flags cover the sky, the enemy is like a
 cloud,
Arrows are shot back and forth, the warriors
 fight to be first in killing the foe.

Though the head be severed from the body,
 the heart never changes,
The hands still clasp the strong bow and the
 long sword.
Truly they have power and bravery!
Who can shame such peerless strength?
Though the body is dead, the spirit will never
 decay,
They will be heroes among the ghosts forever.

The "Chao Hun"

The Chao Hun or "Calling Back the Soul" is a ritual song used by the sorcerers of Chu to heal the sick. In those days it was thought that when a sick man lost consciousness his soul had left his body and was wandering elsewhere. This song calls on the "living soul" to return. It tells the soul that the whole vast universe is full of terror, but that its home, with food, drink, music and other comforts, is pleasant and enjoyable. Thus it tempts the parting soul to return.

The poem preserves the feeling of dread that ancient people had for the unknown. It is also a very precious source material for the religious beliefs of that time. Moreover, its vivid descriptions of human pleasures provided an example for later writers of a form of poem called the Fu. For example:

Before the wine and the delicious food are
 finished,
An orchestra of maidens appears.
They strike the bell, beat the drum and sing
 new songs.
'Picking water chestnuts while crossing the
 river', they sing, and all join in.

The beauties have drunk much wine, their
 faces are flushed like flowers,
Bewitching glances dart from limpid eyes.
Dressed in silk gauze, they move with
 glamour and grace;
The hair on their temples is black and shining;
 how beautiful is the long hair over their
 shoulders.

They form eight pairs, each resembling the
 other, and begin the dance of the land of
 Cheng.
With long sleeves interlaced like bamboo
 stems, forward they dance gracefully.
The music of reed organs, lutes and big drums
 becomes wild,
The palace shakes, so full of noble force the
 sound.

All of these songs, except the Kuo Shang, glow with the colours of sunset. They are different from the Li Sao and the Huai Sha, which give free rein to imagination and passion.

Another long poem named Tien Wen is a general summary of ancient Chinese myths and legends. In this poem, Chu Yuan raised more than 170 questions, asking about everything from before the existence of the world to the time of historical personages. Here many forgotten myths and legends are preserved.

Oppressors Denounced

The poet came from the aristocracy, but he relentlessly exposed the crimes of that class and dealt it a severe blow. He wrote in the Li Sao:

They compete for corruption and pleasures.
Their greed for money knows no satisfaction.
Self-indulgent, but hard toward other men,
Even among themselves there exist schemes
 and jealousies.

And in the Huai Sha:

What is white is called black, what is high is
 called low.
The phoenix is shut up in a cage, while hens
  and ducks dance at liberty.
Jade is mixed with stones, good and bad are
  not distinguished.

Chu Yuan had a sincere and warm feeling of brotherhood for the people. His creative genius crystallized their accusations against their oppressors into a series of great masterpieces. It is for this that he has been loved and remembered by the Chinese people for 2,230 years and is honoured by millions everywhere today.