'', imprint of presumably the 14th century (
Metropolitan Museum of Art) Qu Yuan is regarded as the first author of verse in China to have his name associated to his work, since prior to that time, poetic works were not attributed to any specific authors. He is considered to have initiated the so-called
sao style of verse, which is named after his work
Li Sao, in which he abandoned the classic four-character verses used in poems of
Shi Jing and adopted verses with varying lengths. This resulted in poems with more rhythm and latitude in expression. Qu Yuan is also regarded as one of the most prominent figures of
Romanticism in Chinese classical literature, and his masterpieces influenced some of the great Romanticist poets in the Tang dynasty. During the
Han dynasty, Qu Yuan became established as a heroic example of model behaviour for a scholar-official denied public recognition suitable to their worth.
Chu Ci )
Chu was located in what is now the
Yangzi River area of central China. At this time, Chu represented the southern fringe of the Chinese cultural area, having been at times an ally, opponent, or subunit of the
Shang and
Zhou kingdoms. However, the Chu culture also retained certain characteristics of local traditions such as
shamanism, the influence of which can be seen in the
Chu Ci. The
Chu Ci was compiled and annotated by
Wang Yi (died AD 158), and is the source of transmission of these poems and any reliable information about them to subsequent times; thus, the role which Qu Yuan had in the authoring, editing, or retouching of these works remains unclear. The
Chu Ci poems are important as being direct precursors of the
fu style of Han dynasty literature. The
Chu Ci, as a preservation of early literature, has provided invaluable data for linguistic research into the history of the Chinese language, from
Chen Di on.
Religion Following his suicide, Qu Yuan was sometimes revered as a
water god, including by
Taiwanese Taoists, who number him among the
Kings of the Water Immortals.
Patriotism ) Qu Yuan began to be treated in a
nationalist way as "China's first
patriotic poet" during
World War II.
Wen Yiduo—a socialist poet and scholar later executed by the
Chinese Nationalist Party—wrote in his
Mythology & Poetry that, "although Qu Yuan did not write about the life of the people or voice their sufferings, he may truthfully be said to have acted as the leader of a people's revolution and to have struck a blow to avenge them. Qu Yuan is the only person in the whole of Chinese history who is fully entitled to be called 'the people's poet'."
Guo Moruo's 1942
play Qu Yuan gave him similar treatment, drawing parallels to
Hamlet and
King Lear. and the
Dragon Boat Festival elevated to a
national public holiday in 2008. It has, however, come at the expense of more the critical scholarly appraisals of Qu Yuan's historicity and alleged body of work that had developed during the late
Qing and
early Republic. China's
interplanetary exploration program,
Tianwen (
Heavenly Questions) is named after the poem. The first mission to Mars,
Tianwen-1, was launched on July 23, 2020, and reached Mars on February 10, 2021. On Mar 14, 2021, the lander and rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars. ==See also==