The Cultural Background of Chu Rhetoric

Toward the end of the Warring States period in China, in the state of Chu in the Jianghan Valley, there appeared a new kind of poetry that was magnificent, majestic, deep, sincere, tragic and exuberant, which was Chu Rhetoric initiated by Qu Yuan, a great patriotic poet. As a form of poetry, Chu Rhetoric has a unique artistic style and strong local color. It is called "Chu Rhetoric" because it "writes Chu words, makes Chu sounds, and records Chu objects" (Song Huang Boshi, "Dongguan Yu Lun - Yisao Preface"). After Qu Yuan, there were some people in the Chu state and Han dynasty who used "Chu rhetoric" as a form of poetry to compose. Around the end of the Western Han Dynasty, many works of "Chu Shi" were compiled into one collection. But no matter whether it is the name of the genre or the name of the collection of poems, the word "Chu Ci" will always be inseparable from the name of Qu Yuan. It is not by chance that Chu Rhetoric, together with its greatest author, Qu Yuan, came into being in the state of Chu; it was determined by a number of factors. The state of Chu was established at the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, when it was "open (secluded) in the Jing Mountains, wickerwork and recklessness" (Zuo Zhuan - Zhaogong 12 years). After the long struggle of the people of Chu, by the Spring and Autumn Period, it had a strong economic power. "The terrain is rich in food and there is no famine" ("Records of the Grand Historian - Cargo Shik Lianzhuan"), "merchants, farmers, laborers, and merchants do not lose their business" ("Zuo Zhuan - Xuan Gong 11th year"), and they were able to move across the Jianghan Valley. In the late Spring and Autumn period, Chu had the iron smelting industry rarely seen in the Central Plains, in recent years in Henan Xichuan County excavation of the Chu tomb, found a jade handle iron dagger, more Chu iron smelting industry progress. The high degree of economic development provided a strong material basis for the development of literature and art. "It should be remembered that far from everything 'superstructure' grows directly out of the economic base: art is associated with the economic base only indirectly" (Plekhanov, "On "Economic Factors "). The well-developed economy of Chu only provided the necessary material conditions for the development of literature and art, while the development of a certain form of art was more importantly rooted in traditional culture and subject to the constraints of society and the times. The laws of development of literature and art play an important and direct role. First of all, the developed and unique Chu culture has nurtured great poets, and it is the soil from which Chu Rhetoric was born. The Chinese nation, like all peoples of the world, had colorful myths in the primitive age. When the orthodox classics in the central plains of the region of the beautiful myths left over from ancient times are all "historicized", located in the south of Chu, there are still many magnificent myths; "Book of Han" says, "Chu people believe in sorcery and ghosts, and heavy obscene rituals". Such a custom, in the preservation and circulation of myths and legends also played a role. The Chu Rhetoric "Nine Songs" is a musical song for the Chu folk to offer sacrifices to the gods processed by Qu Yuan, in which we can see how the customs of the Chu land are rich in mythological meanings and colors. In poems such as Li Sao, Heavenly Questions, and Invocation of the Soul, the mythological material was carefully compiled by Qu Yuan, and all of them produced great artistic charm. At the same time, the myths and legends expanded the space for the poet's imagination, enriched the content of Qu Yuan's creation, and opened the way for the formation and development of positive romanticism. Chu beautiful mountains and rivers, rich in produce, the people of Chu, especially love music and dance; and the prevalence of witch winds, more to promote the development of music and dance. Archaeological discoveries so far also indicate that the people of Chu were more able to sing and dance than the people of the Central Plains. This also directly affected the creation of poetry. Wang Guowei regarded the Nine Songs as the germ of later dramas; Wen Yiduo even rewrote the Nine Songs as a song and dance drama. At the same time, the natural scenery not only cultivated the poet's temperament and enriched his imagination, but also provided materials for him to express his feelings. Liu Fo said in "Carving Dragons from the Heart of Literature", "Qu Ping was able to understand the feelings of the wind and the sirens, or is it also the help of the river and the mountains?" This is indeed a place where Qu Yuan was uniquely endowed. Secondly, the traditional and epochal culture of the Central Plains is also closely related to the creation of Qu Yuan and Chu Rhetoric. The Book of Songs is the first collection of poems in China, which depicts real life in many aspects and expresses the feelings of people of different classes or strata about real life, with the spirit of realism. In terms of artistic techniques, it utilized a lot of comparing and rising, which gained remarkable artistic effects. In the cultural exchanges between the north and the south, the Book of Songs provided extremely useful reference for Chu Rhetoric, which obviously inherited the tradition of the Book of Songs in terms of the techniques of ratio and rise and the spirit of facing the reality. In the past, the scholar-philosophers and the rulers of the states actively searched for their "soulmates" among the rulers, while the monarchs of the states were also willing to listen to their lobbying words. This characteristic of the times made the reasoning prose written by the Shi, words and chapters are magnificent, emotionally exciting, persuasive. In order to be more persuasive, these essays also used a lot of metaphors and fables, which made the essays more twisted and vivid. The development of the Hundred Schools of Thought and their corresponding prose also had a great influence on Qu Yuan's writing. The ideas of the Hundred Schools of Thought, especially those of Confucianism and Legalism, are more clearly reflected in Qu Yuan's works. For all these reasons, it seemed to Qu Yuan that the simple style and simple language of the Classic of Poetry could no longer adequately express his thoughts and feelings. Therefore, he used the folk songs of Chu as the basis and refined the language of the prose of the sons into poetry, creating a new form of Chu Rhetoric, which opened up a new style in the poetry world. The famous ancient Chinese literary critic, Liu Foxing, put it well: "If there is no Qu Yuan, how can we see Li Sao" ("Wen Xin Diao Long - Identifying Sao"). The reason why Qu Yuan was able to become a great poet, in addition to the above objective conditions, is inseparable from his own subjective efforts. Qu Yuan (about 340 BC - 278 BC ①), name Ping, Zigui (now Zigui, Hubei), he believed that he was well endowed. According to legend, the ancient emperor Zhuan Xu Gao Yang clan was the ancestor of Chu, and Qu Yuan's family belonged to one of the Chu royal clans. Qu Yuan was born on the day of the Tai Sui Fung Yin (the old astrological calendar known as the Regular Tigue, that is, "Li Sao" said "Regular Tigue") in the first month of the year Geng Yin, the year, month and day are consistent with the concept of "people born in the Yin", his father gave him the name of His father named him "Ping", a character called "Yuan" to match his birthday. Ping is a symbol of heaven; Yuan is a broad and flat terrain, referring to the earth. In this way, Qu Yuan's name, character and birthday contain the meaning of the unity of heaven, earth and man. This certainly seemed to Qu Yuan more than 2,000 years ago to be something fortunate and something to be proud of. However, Qu Yuan did not indulge in this fortune, he knew: "Goodness cannot come from outside and fame cannot be made in vain" ("Drawing Thoughts"), so he treasured the time and endeavored to cultivate himself: "Bubbling Yu if I will be less than Ruoxi, I am afraid that the years will not be mine with" ("Li Sao"). He persevered in the pursuit of a high and pure character: "Closed minded and prudent, he never loses his mind, he is unselfish, and he is a member of heaven and earth" ("Ode to the Tangerine"). Firmly and persistently pursuing the truth, the pursuit of their own political ideals: "The road is long, I will go up and down and search for it", "but also the goodness of the remaining heart, although nine deaths of its still not regret" ("Li Sao"). Qu Yuan had rich historical knowledge and studied the rise and fall of the ancient world. Qu Yuan's works often claimed the successes of ancient sages and the failures of tyrants and traitors, while the vast majority of them were still historical events and myths of the north. The Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) and Qu Yuan's Liezhuan (Biography of Qu Yuan) say that he was "a learned man with a strong will who understood the rule of the world and was skillful in speech and order". This was certainly the result of his hard work. Qu Yuan loved his motherland and sympathized with the people. He was not only loyal to his country, but also had an incomparably deep feeling for the countryside, mountains and rivers of Chu, and its scenery and people. This feeling has a historical origin and is connected with the people of Chu. The Chu nation is an ancient nation in the south of China, which had participated in the war of King Wu of Zhou to conquer the Zhou Dynasty and was knighted by King Cheng of Zhou. But later, Chu was discriminated against and hostile to by the Central Powers for a long time, and was regarded as an alien race with "overlapping hair" and falsely called "Jingban". This has contributed to the people of Chu have a relatively strong national concept and local feelings, there is a kind of self-reliance and upward spirit. Qu Yuan, who grew up on this land with patriotic traditions, tightly linked his fate with that of Chu. In the Warring States period, the trend of "great unification" emerged, which was the result of social development and the requirement of the whole Chinese nation. The wars of annexation during the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods were the inevitable process of establishing a unified feudal state. Since the change of the law by Shang Yang, the state of Qin has been rich and strong, and has been carrying out political, diplomatic and military actions in a systematic manner in the direction of destroying the vassals and unifying the whole country in the direction of the "career of the emperor". However, "Qin took the world, not in righteousness, but in brutality" ("Strategies of the Warring States - Yan Ce II"), and was quite brutal in the process of annexation, such as the Battle of Changping between Qin and Zhao, in which the Qin general Bai Qi buried alive more than 400,000 prisoners of war of the Zhao state. The war of annexation, full of predatory and destructive behavior, brought about deep disasters to the people, and "the people had no chance of survival, and the tribes were scattered" (The Strategies of the Warring States Period - Qin Ce IV). Qu Yuan, "covering his tears with a long sigh of relief, lamented the difficulties of the people's livelihood" (Li Sao). He sincerely hoped that the state of Chu would become strong, and asked the king of Chu to follow the example of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, and other saintly kings to cultivate the law and raise up the virtuous and capable; he followed the example of Gaotao, Yi Yin, and other famous ancient virtuous ministers, and wanted to rely on the power of the state of Chu to unify the whole of China by means of benevolent government. Qu Yuan had such a great personality, profound knowledge, extraordinary talent, and lofty political ideals, so it was by Qu Yuan's hands that he created the brilliant and splendid poems, and Qu Yuan became a great poet in Chinese history. "The essence of human voice is speech, and the rhetoric of speech is also its essence. You choose the one who is good at sounding and pretend to sound" (Han Yu's "Preface to Sending Meng Dongye"), which is exactly the reason why "if you don't have Qu Yuan, you won't see Li Sao". However, all of the above are indispensable to the creation of a great poet and an epoch-making literature, and the so-called "opportunity" is also essential. "A great and strong character, without opportunity or stimulus, often remains obscure" (Dana, Philosophy of Art). This "opportunity", this "stimulus", is the turmoil and decline of Chu, and Qu Yuan's personal misfortune. This is very unfortunate for the people of Chu and for Qu Yuan personally, but for Qu Yuan's creation, it is a great fortune among misfortunes. Qu Yuan lived in the late Warring States period, a time of great turmoil. The vassal states, faced with the threat of the powerful Qin, developed the policy of "Combined Columns" to fight against the Qin, while the Qin tried every means to divide the "Combined Columns", the so-called "Heng Heng". The so-called "Lianheng". Su Qin, a famous strategist, concluded at that time: "Hengxian is the emperor of Qin, and zhengxian is the king of Chu" (Liu Xiang, "Strategies of the Warring States" (战国策-叙录)). Qu Yuan realized that the success or failure of "combining vertical and horizontal" or "connecting horizontal and vertical" was directly related to the survival of Chu. In order to realize his political ideals, he strongly advocated to unite with Qi, and made several trips to Qi for this purpose. However, "at that time, the king of Chu was not sympathetic to his government because of the size of his state, and his ministers were jealous of each other's achievements, flattered and flattered, and the good ministers were not in favor of each other, and the people's hearts were separated from each other, and the cities and towns were not repaired" ("Strategies of the Warring States", "Strategies of Zhongshan"), and the corrupted forces represented by the king of Chu Huaiwang, which were y rooted in the state, were in an absolute advantageous position. They "turn white into black, and pour up into down" ("Huai Sha"). Not only was Qu Yuan hated and persecuted by them, but the idea of uniting Qi against Qin was also abandoned. As a result, the situation inevitably developed in a direction that Qu Yuan had foreseen but was extremely reluctant to see, with Chu offending its ally, Qi, and repeatedly losing the war with Qin. This made Qu Yuan very painful, but he still firmly believed in his own ideas and absolutely refused to compromise, thus he was further persecuted and attacked. When King Huai of Chu and King Hai Xiang of Chu, he was exiled twice, "swimming in the river pool, walking and chanting on the banks of the swamp, his color emaciated, his description withered" ("Fisherman's Father"), and suffered a lot of pain and suffering. In exile, the situation in Chu was deteriorating. Qu Yuan saw the king of Huai being tricked into dying in Qin; he saw Ying being captured by Qin. To Qu Yuan, who loved Chu and linked his fate with that of Chu, how could he not be grieved? He "sniveling and miserable Ruoxi, think sleepless to dawn"; he "but Ying road is far away, the soul of a Ruoxi and nine passed away", he could not withstand this heavy blows one after another, finally in grief, despair, sunk in Miluo River, the end of his tragic life. "Qu Yuan was banished, and then he wrote Li Sao" (Sima Qian, "Reporting the Book of Ren'an"). It was the great pain of exile and the loss of his country that made Qu Yuan "express his anger and emotions" ("Recite with Regard"). The shocking reality makes Qu Yuan have a deeper feeling of life, which is the "stimulus" that created Qu Yuan; it is also the direct reason for the production of Chu Rhetoric. From the point of view of Qu Yuan's works, except for the "Nine Songs", which is dedicated to the gods and was written before his political disappointment, the rest of the works were all written with blood and tears after he was banished. Among them, there are eulogies for the motherland and sympathies for the people; there are bold revelations about the king of Chu and merciless attacks on sycophants. He galloped his imagination to express a strong patriotic passion. The crystallization of these sad and exuberant feelings also constitutes the main body of Chu rhetoric. Qu Yuan's Chu Rhetoric marked the artistic achievement of poetry in the Warring States period and had a great influence on later generations. As soon as it came out, literary people were "amazed at its elegance and competed with each other to imitate it" (Lu Xun, "Outline of the History of Chinese Literature"). However, many people only saw the novel form of Chu Rhetoric, but did not know that the gorgeous rhetoric could only radiate after expressing the profound ideological content. The Han Dynasty fugue, which was born out of Chu Rhetoric, was lifeless because the content was vague, although the rhetoric was gorgeous and richly arranged and rendered. But Chu Rhetoric, with its unique artistic form and profound ideological content, has become a great and immortal piece of glorious poetry. ①About Qu Yuan's birth and death years, traditionally said differently, today take Guo Moruo said.

Sao style poetry, that is, the "Li Sao" class of poems. Sao style, also known as Chu Rhetoric style, in the "Han Book - Arts and Letters" belongs to the "Poetry and Fugue" category. It originated in the state of Chu during the Warring States period and was founded by Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan and other poets wrote many excellent works in this style. These works are rich in lyrical elements and romantic flavor, longer in length, longer in words, freer in form, and more often with the word "Ruoxi" at the end of the sentence. This is also the basic characteristic of the Saosi style of poetry. What is the difference between this "Sao Style Poetry" and Qu Yuan's previous poetic forms? First, there is a breakthrough in the syntax. The syntax of Qu Yuan's previous poems was basically a four-syllable style. This syntax is undoubtedly a great improvement over the three-word syntax of the legendary Yao and Shun era, which we can see now. In terms of its artistic expression, the Book of Songs, especially the folk songs of the national winds, can be said to have reached its peak.1 However, this four-verse stanza is not the same as the three-verse stanza of the legendary Yao and Shun era. However, this four-line stanza, after all, is short in rhythm, monotonous and dull, and limited in capacity. When expressing more complex social life and thoughts and feelings, its constraints and limitations are prominently displayed. On the contrary, it is those miscellaneous speech styles in the national winds, such as "False Sandalwood" and "Xinglu", as well as the "Xu Man Song", "Yue Man Song" and "Cang Lang Song" circulated among the folk of Chu, Wu and Yue, which, because of their varied characters and free rhythms, showed their strengths in expressing their thoughts and feelings. When Qu Yuan wrote the Orange Song in his early days, he still used this four-character style. But when he was slandered and expelled, his chest was full of grief and pain, and he wanted to turn it into poetry, he could no longer tolerate the constraints of this four-syllable style. He boldly learned from the experience of the folk "common songs and slang phrases" that "do not stick to four lines "2 and consciously adopted the new five-, six-, and seven-line stanzas that often appear in folk songs, retaining the tone of voice "Ruoxi" in the chants, and creating a new style of poetry in the form of "Ruoxi". The new syntax of five, six, and seven words often found in folk songs was consciously adopted, and the tone word "ruoxi" in the chants was retained, creating a long, generally neat and flexible sentence pattern of mainly six words, with five and seven words mixed in. The poem "Recite with Regard" is the first "Sao-style poem" created by Qu Yuan, who broke away from the four-character style. At first glance, the "Saosi" style has only two or three more words than the four-character style, but its effect is not to be underestimated. The addition of these two or three words enlarges the capacity of the whole sentence. Moreover, as the former said when analyzing the length of the seven-word sentence compared with the five-word sentence, because "each sentence has two more words, so it is not urgent to make a turn", it is more suitable for "expressing feelings and rhymes "3 . Therefore, the creation of long sentences in Qu Yuan's "Sao Style" is really a major breakthrough in the four-sentence style. Secondly, it is the innovation of chapter style. Poetry before Qu Yuan's time, such as the state winds in the Classic of Poetry, generally used the form of overlapping chapters and repetitive chants; in many poems, only a few words were changed in each chapter to express the passage of a scene or the progression of feelings (e.g., Personality of Seeds, General Zhongzi, etc.). This form, which is related to poetic ensemble, is a reflection of the musical form. It has the effect of facilitating memorization and strengthening the mood, but at the same time it also brings a drawback, that is, it narrows the capacity of the whole poem accordingly. The "Sao Style Poetry" created by Qu Yuan, though also in music, has a very different style. He indulged himself in his thoughts, which flowed freely in his poems; either stating, or lamenting, or calling out, or rebuking; wherever his feelings led him, he did not stick to the ancient poetic style. Because of this, some later annotators of Ch'u-ch'iu wanted to divide Qu Yuan's poems into chapters according to the method of "Poetry", but the result was that they could not avoid hitting the wall4. The Song scholar Qian Guozhi recognized this innovation of Qu Yuan and clearly pointed out that while ancient poems have sections and chapters, Qu Yuan's fugue has "sections but no chapters". Qu Yuan's "Sao Style" does not stick to the chapters of ancient poems, but has its own chapters. His poems have a beginning, an unfolding, an echo, and even an ending in the form of a "chaotic saying", which summarizes and concludes the content or main idea of the poem, and its vein is extremely clear. This shows that Qu Yuan's poetry has not only the creative spirit of "speaking from the heart and not following the rules "5 but also the creative spirit of "using one's mind to carry out the law" and "doing what one has to do and stopping what one has to stop". It is also characterized by the "divine changes" (6). The third is the expansion of the system. The poems before Qu Yuan's time were generally lyrical poems that expressed their own feelings. They were often about the outlook of the eyes, about the things around them, about the aspirations of the heart, and about the feelings and state of mind of a moment or a place. Reflected in the poetic system, most of them are just short chapters of more than ten lines or tens of lines. In the Book of Songs, there are also some epic poems (such as Daya's "Sangmin" and "Mian", and Lu Song's "Cuogong", etc.), or lyric poems (such as Daya's "Sangru" and "Inhibition", and Xiaoya's "June" and "First Month", etc.), reflecting the major events of contemporary politics and military affairs, and expressing the anxieties of court officials about the affairs of the state, as well as some agricultural poems (such as Binfeng's "July", etc.). There is a tendency for the poems to evolve to middle and long lengths in terms of system. In general, however, the three hundred poems were written in short chapters, and even the grandest of them all, the Sesung, consisted of only nine chapters of one hundred and twenty-one lines and four hundred and eighty-four characters. Qu Yuan's "poems in the style of Sao", especially "Li Sao", are still lyrical poems, but what he expresses is not the feelings and state of mind of a moment or a place. He wanted to show, on an extremely broad scale, the course of his pursuit of ideal and beautiful government for most of his life, and the joys, worries, pains and disappointments he experienced in this struggle. Such a complex life and rich thoughts and feelings could not be accommodated in a short chapter of a dozen or so sentences. For this reason, Qu Yuan, on the one hand, drew successful experience from those poems in the Book of Songs that had broken through the system of short lyrical chapters, and on the other hand, applied the characteristics of the lobbying speech of the vertical and horizontal writers since the Warring States period, who were so unrestrained and unrestrained that they had to make their thoughts and feelings so treacherous and exhaustive, to the creation of lyrical poems, thus greatly expanding the system of the old poems and creating a magnificent, extremely voluminous The system of long poems was greatly expanded, creating a grand and voluminous system. Although Qu Yuan's major work of poetry, "Heavenly Questions," was still written in four-character stanzas, the system had already made a great breakthrough (7), reaching more than three hundred and eighty stanzas, or more than one thousand five hundred words, in ancient poetry. The subsequent Li Sao, with its 372 lines and 2,469 words, established the system of long poems in ancient China. Fourthly, the interaction of various forms. The basic forms and characteristics of "Sao Style Poetry" have been described above. It should be further pointed out that this new poetic form was not fixed and monotonous in Qu Yuan's hands, but was extremely flexible and full of variations. Qu Yuan adapted to the needs of different contents, and constantly made new changes and creations in both syntax and style. In terms of syntax, "Li Sao" uses the basic syntax of "Sao Style Poetry", i.e., six long lines, but mixed with five, seven or even eight lines, making it variable, and the rhythm is more relaxed, suitable for expressing the poet's sombre, sentimental and lingering feelings, and showing the rhythm of the intestines. Nine Songs", on the other hand, directly adopts the common folk song half sentence plus "Ruoxi" (such as the "Song of the Yue People", "The mountain has a wood and the wood has a branch, the heart pleases the gentleman and the gentleman does not know"), the rhythm of the brisk, jumping, suitable for the expression of the entertainment of the gods singing and dancing in a joyful, melodious mood. In "Huai Sha" as well as "Drawing Thoughts" and "Wading in the River", Qu Yuan used the phrase "four words at a time" and "Ruoxi" at the end of the sentence (××××, ×××× Ruoxi), with a short and rapid rhythm, and a strong and forceful tone, which showed a sudden outburst of strong feelings. Stylistically speaking, Qu Yuan not only wrote "Li Sao", a "long lyrical piece" that expresses his life and romanticism over a large span of time and space, but also created the form of exegesis and question-and-answer sessions ("elder sister"), "spiritual atmosphere", and "the spirit of the city"), but he also wrote a series of short phrases () with a short rhythm and a strong tone, showing the sudden outburst of strong feelings. and the structure of the plot creates the form of question-and-answer ("the elder sister" advice, "spirit atmosphere divination", etc.), so that "there are peaks and peaks in the narrative", "long but not diffuse" (8), such as "the Yellow River is a song of a hundred miles, a thousand miles has been" ⑨. And also created "Heavenly Question" such as "set Qi Zhuo Gui", a question to the end of the "questioning style", "Invocation" such as the prose spread, "colorful and deep" of the "fugue style". The "Fugue Style" of "Invocation", the "Group Song Style" of "Nine Songs", which consists of a number of short chapters linked together, and the "Chanting Objects" of "Orange Song", which consists of a number of objects in the form of a song. Such a variety of styles, interacting with each other, make Qu Yuan's poetry, presenting a "changeable, roaring, roaring, not stagnant, the body is unique, the text is also to the" ⑩ of the colorful and diverse peculiar scene, is really a cloud, brilliant, without the kind of stagnation of the knitting knitting Han Dynasty, dull and monotonous. It is because of Qu Yuan's innovative and courageous creation that a poetic style has appeared in the history of Chinese literature, which is different from the previous Poetry Scriptures, and also different from the later poems of five or seven lines. Its appearance brought a great liberation to the poetic style since the Spring and Autumn Period. Wu Jingxu, a Ming scholar, said, "After the scripture and before the fugue, this kind of text suddenly appeared in heaven and earth," and "the overall view of the style of Shiwen, chiseled and hollowed out without humane way, should be named as a separate one, and 'Sao' can also be ordered. " (11) Li Weizhen also praised Qu Yuan for "creating a thousand years of work with one person's hand." (12) To Qu Yuan, such a high appraisal can be said to be well deserved!

1) The later Cao Cao's quatrains were quite innovative compared to the Poetry Classic.

②⑤Lu Xun, Outline of the History of Chinese Literature.

3) See Shih Tzu-hua, "Da Nian Maid Speaks of Poetry" (岘佣说诗).

④ For example, Zhu Xi said that the Chu Rhetoric, i.e., each poem is divided into chapters. His "Chu Rhetoric Annotated - Li Sao" says that the first four sentences say: "This chapter, the fugue is also ......" is an example.

6 Shen Deqian "said poetry first birthday".

7The author thinks that the composition of "Heavenly Questions" is earlier than "Li Sao". My humble work is "on" heavenly question "writing age of speculation", in the "controversy" 82 years 4; "Li Sao made in haixiang eight, nine years of examination", in the "fudan journal" 82 years 1. (8) Shen Deqian, Saying Poetry, Pfft.

9 Liu Xizai, "The Art of Poetry".

⑩Chen Di, "Qu Song gu yin yi".

11 Wu Jingxu (吴景旭) Poetry through the Ages.

(12) Chu Rhetoric Collected Notes, Ming Li Weizhen, Preface.