\tThe Chinese literary type of Chuci \u695a\u8f9e "Poetry of Chu" or "Poetry of the South" is a sort of poem that found its origin in the works of Qu Yuan \u5c48\u539f, a high minister in the state of Chu \u695a.<\/p>\n
\tAfter his death, many persons from that region imitated his style of writing. The formal style and the themes of this poems was so different from the poems of the states in the Yellow River plain that it was always treated as a separate type of literature. The most famous poem is Qu Yuan's Lisao \u79bb\u9a9a "Sorrow after departing". The style of the Chuci and commentaries to these poems have been included as a separate sub-category in the collectaneum Siku quanshu \u56db\u5e93\u5168\u4e66. It includes only 6 writings of and on this type of poetry.
\tA great part of the poems is ascribed to the statesman Qu Yuan. The collection Chuci was compiled by the Han period \u6c49 (206 BCE-220 CE) scholar Liu Xiang \u5218\u5411 and commented by Wang Yi \u738b\u9038. The collection comprises poems of Qu Yuan and Song Yu \u5b8b\u7389, both ministers at the court of the king of Chu, and the Han period scholars Jia Yi \u8d3e\u8c0a, Huainan Xiaoshan \u6dee\u5357\u5c0f\u5c71, Dongfang Shuo \u4e1c\u65b9\u6714, Zhuang Ji \u5e84\u5fcc, Wang Bao \u738b\u8912, Liu Xiang and Wang Yi. All of them came from the same region in modern central China which had a cultural tradition distinct from the states in the Yellow River plain.
\tQu Yuan was a high minister of King Huai of Chu \u695a\u6000\u738b (r. 328-299) to whom he suggested reforms in government and an alliance with the state of Qi \u9f50 in order to encounter the growing power of the state of Qin \u79e6. Qu Yuan was slendered by another minister called Qin Shang \u9773\u5c1a and thereupon dismissed. When King Qingxiang \u695a\u9877\u8944\u738b (r. 298-263) was taken prisoner by Qin, Qu Yuan wrote his famous poem Li Sao \u79bb\u9a9a "Sorrow after department" which can be interpreted as a kind of autobiography. The disappointed Qu Yuan drowned himself in the River Miluo \u6c68\u7f57\u6c5f. People later started offering rice balls to his soul, and during the mid-autumn moon festival (zhongqiujie \u4e2d\u79cb\u8282), rice balls enveloped in bamboo leaves (zongzi \u7cbd\u5b50) are still a popular meal in southern China.
\tOther poems that are ascribed to Qu Yuan are the Nine Songs (Jiuge \u4e5d\u6b4c), the Nine Elegies (Jiuzhang \u4e5d\u7ae0), "Asking Heaven" (Wentian \u95ee\u5929) and some more. The particular style of the Chuci poetry differs from the northern poetry styles both in verse (the verse divider xi \u516e, a particle expressing sighing) and in content. The northern literature is much more plain of feelings, while the poems in the southern state of Chu are full of sentiment and even mystical visions. Qu Yuan, for example, is guided on his horse chart to a heaven far from the human world. His evokings of the Goddess of the River Xiang \u6e58\u541b is an example of shamanism common in the southern religion. Southern poetry later became very popular among Daoists that also saw man as a mere small being in cosm and nature.
\tThe Chuci collection was enlarged by some other poems that were partially also written by "southerners", partially imitations of Qu Yuan's style, like the Han period poet Wang Bao from the region of Sichuan, and Liu Xiang, son of Liu Jiao \u5218\u4ea4 (posthumous title Prince Yuan of Chu \u695a\u5143\u738b), or Jia Yi and Dongfang Shuo, both writers known for their inclination to Daoism.<\/p>\n
\tIn the bibliography Yiwen zhi \u827a\u6587\u5fd7, part of the official dynastic history Hanshu \u6c49\u4e66, the poems of Qu Yuan are listed as fu \u8d4b "rhapsodies" in 25 chapters. The bibliography treatise Jingjizhi \u7ecf\u7c4d\u5fd7 in the Suishu \u968b\u4e66 already lists ten books about the Chuci, of which the greatest part is lost today.<\/p>\n
\tIn the bibliography Yiwen zhi \u85dd\u6587\u5fd7, part of the official dynastic history Hanshu \u6f22\u66f8, the poems of Qu Yuan are listed as fu \u8ce6 "rhapsodies" in 25 chapters. The bibliography treatise Jingjizhi \u7d93\u7c4d\u5fd7 in the Suishu \u968b\u66f8 already lists ten books about the Chuci, of which the greatest part is lost today.<\/p>\n
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