Sources show Qu Yuan (?340-278 BCE) was the first person in China to
become famous for his poetry, so famous in fact that the Chinese
celebrate his life with a national holiday called Poet's Day, or the
Dragon Boat Festival. His work, which forms the core of the The Songs
of Chu, the second oldest anthology of Chinese poetry, derives its
imagery from shamanistic ritual. Its shaman hymns are among the most
beautiful and mysterious liturgical works in the world. The religious
milieu responsible for their imagery supplies the backdrop for his most
famous work, Li sao, which translates shamanic longing for a spirit
lover into the yearning for an ideal king that is central to the ancient
philosophies of China.
Qu Yuan was as important to the development of Chinese literature as
Homer was to the development of Western literature. This translation
attempts to replicate what the work might have meant to those for whom
it was originally intended, rather than settle for what it was made to
mean by those who inherited it. It accounts for the new view of the
state of Chu that recent discoveries have inspired.