1. A Madman of Ch'u: The Myth of Loyalty and Dissent (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

2. Compare, for example, Kaicheng, Jin 金開誠, “Lun Han ren dui Qu Yuan jiqi cizuo de renshi he yanjiu” 論漢人對屈原及其辭作的認識和研究, Wenshi 文史 25 (1985), 235-45Google Scholar; Guangxi, Yin 殷光喜, “Liang Han shiqi de Chu ci pinglun” 兩漢時期的楚辭評 論, Sixiang zhanxian 思想戰線 1987.3, 47–53 Google Scholar. Wenying, Shi 石文英, “Liang Han Li sao lunzheng jiqi yanxu” 兩漢《離騷》論爭及其延續, Wenshizhe 文史哲 1988.2, 68–73 Google Scholar. The trouble with the articles mentioned above is that their results hardly go beyond a study made by Kanru, Lu 陸侃如 in the 1960's: “Han ren lun Chu ci ” 漢人論楚辭, reprinted in Lu Kanru gudian wenxue lunwen ji 陸侃如古典文學論文集 (Shanghai: Guji, 1987), 371–401 Google Scholar. Another reason for the limitation of the articles by Chinese scholars was that, at least in the People's Republic of China, scientists strictly distinguished between literary genres. Thus scholars like Ma Maoyuan 馬茂元 would not consider a poem by Jia Yi when dealing with the treatise of Liu An 劉安 or the preface of Ban Gu 班固. See his “Cong Han dai guanyu Qu Yuan de lunzheng dao Liu Xie de Bian Sao ” 從漢代關 於屈原的論爭到劉勰的《辯騷》, Chu ci yanjiu lunwen xuan 楚辭研究論文選, ed. Jinding, Yang 楊金鼎 (Wuhan: Hubei renmin, 1985), 177-78Google Scholar. While more recent studies still follow the same approach, over time they gradually overcome the afore-mentioned limitation with regard to genre. Compare Liangyun, Chen 陳良運, “ Li sao pingjia zhi zheng” 《離騷》評价之爭, in Zhongguo shixue piping shi 中國詩學批評史 (Nanchang: Jiangxi renmin, 2001), 84–92 Google Scholar. Takeji Sadao 竹治貞夫 only searched through some of the sources of the controversy for remnants of earlier commentaries: “O I izen ni okeru Soji no chukai” 王逸以前における楚辭の注解, Soji kenky ū楚辭研究 (Tokyo: Kazama, 1979), 148-55Google Scholar.

3. Aside from the study of Laurence Schneider, see also Pohl, Karl-Heinz, “Dichtung, Philosophie und Politik: Qu Yuan in den achtziger Jahren,” in Chinesische Intellektuelle im 20. Jahrhundert: Zwischen Tradition und Moderne, ed. Pohl, K.-H. (Hamburg: Institut für Asienkunde, 1993), 405–25Google Scholar; Croizier, Ralph, “Qu Yuan and the Artists: Ancient Symbols and Modern Politics in the Post-Mao Era,” Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 24 (1990), 25–50 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zhonglian, Yi 易重廉, Zhongguo Chu ci xueshi 中國楚辭學史 (Changsha: Hunan, 1991)Google Scholar; Zhonghua, Li 李中華 and Bingxiang, Zhu 朱炳祥, Chu ci xueshi 楚辭學 史 (Wuhan: Wuhan, 1996)Google Scholar; Zhongmo, Huang 黃中模, Xiandai Chu ci piping shi 現代楚 辭批評史 (Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu, 1990)Google Scholar. A comprehensive collection of the key texts on Chu ci reception was recently published by Dianfu, Zhou 周殿富 as volume 5 of his Chu ci yuanliu xuanji: Chu ci lun—Lidai Chu ci lunping xuan 楚辭源流選集:楚辭論—歷 代楚辭論評選 (Changchun: Jilin renmin, 2003)Google Scholar.

4. A variety of expressions like “coda,” “envoi,” or “epilogue” have been used to translate luan. The present translation of luan as “arrangement” follows the earliest definition given by Wang Yi: “Arrangement means principle; it is whereby the principles [of the work] are set forth, its indications are put into words, and the essence it carries is summarized” 亂理也，所以發理詞指，總撮其行要也 in Soji Sakuin: Soji hochu 楚辭 索引: 楚辭補注, ed. Sadao, Takeji (Taibei: Zhonghua shuju, 1972), 76 Google Scholar. This concordance to the Songs of Chu contains Wang Yi's Chu ci zhangju as part of Hong Xingzu's 洪興祖 (1090-1156) sub-commentary Chu ci buzhu. Takeji Sadao's index is based on a corrected edition of the work contained in the Sibu congkan 四部叢刊. All subsequent references to Wang Yi's commentary are to this index. References are keyed to the pagination in Arabic numerals in the text part of this work.

5. Qian, Sima, Shi ji (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1982), 84.2493 Google Scholar. My own translation is partly based on the rendering of Knechtges, David, “Two Studies on the Han Fu,” Parerga 1 (1968), 10–16 Google Scholar.

6. Soji sakuin, 72.

7. Soji sakuin, 293.

8. Until today, all attempts to date the poems contained in the anthology Songs of Chu have failed. Compare the introductory statement by David Hawkes made with his own attempt at dating in mind which is contained in “The Quest of the Goddess,” Asia Major 13.1-2 (1967), 71–94 Google Scholar. In the introduction to the latest publication of his complete translation, he only attempts to group the poems according to his conception of the development of rhyme schemes as well as the evolution of Chu ci poetry from the sacred to the profane. Compare his The Songs of the South: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985), 37ffGoogle Scholar. Since the “Bu ju” is an anecdote about Qu Yuan, it is generally considered to be of later origin than the works attributed to the poet himself.

9. Compare “I grieve that the people born therein face so much distress” 哀民生之多艱 Soji sakuin, 25 Google Scholar. The different translation of Watson and Knechtges of this expression is based on the commentary of Pei Yin 裴駰 (around 430). See Shi ji, 84.2494 Google Scholar. Compare Watson, , “Lament,” 140 Google Scholar; Knechtges, , “Han fu,” 11 Google Scholar. Other examples that confirm my rendering are contained in “She Jiang 涉江” (哀我生之無樂) Soji sakuin, 212–13Google Scholar, in “Yuan you” 遠游 (哀人生之長勤) Soji sakuin, 269 Google Scholar, and in “Jiu tan” 九歎 (哀人生之不當) Soji sakuin, 526 Google Scholar.

10. Shi ji, 84.2493 Google Scholar.

11. Compare Soji sakuin, 77.

12. Soji sakuin, 268.

13. Shi ji, 84.2493 Google Scholar.

14. Soji sakuin, 11, 34, 25-26, 30.

15. Shi ji, 84.2493 Google Scholar.

16. Soji sakuin, 40, 17 Google Scholar.

17. Compare Han shu, ed. Gu, Ban (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1983), 44.2145 Google Scholar.

18. His preface will be examined below.

19. Soji sakuin, 83.

20. “The Master said: ‘The Ospreys’: Pleasure not carried to the point of obscenity; grief not carried to the point of injury” 子曰關雎樂而不淫哀而不傷, Shisanjing zhushu 十三經注疏, ed. Yuan, Ruan 阮元 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1983), 2468.1Google Scholar.

21. These criticisms of particular contents of the “Li sao” are presented in their entirety in the following section on the preface of Ban Gu.

22. Shi ji, 84.2482 Google Scholar.

23. For the development of the image of dropping one's cicada skin, see Seidel, Anna, La Divinisation de Lao Tseu dans le Taoisme des Han (Paris: École Française d’Éxtrême-Orient, 1969), 27n3Google Scholar.

24. Compare Soji sakuin, 43; 57; 69; 14; 21.

25. The examples are contained in chapter 2 and 7 of the Huainanzi. Compare Huainanzi zhuzi suoyin 淮南子逐字索引 (A Concordance to the Huainan zi), ed. Lau, D. C. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1993), 7/107/6; 2/12/3, 14/9, 14/10, 14/21–25 Google Scholar.

26. Han shu, 44.2145 Google Scholar.

27. Soji sakuin, 62-63.

28. The conventional designation of ‘biography’ for zhuan 傳 is used here due to a lack of a more suitable term. Compare the translations of the biography in Hawkes, The Songs of the South: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985), 54–60 Google Scholar and in The Grand Scribe's Records VII: The Memoirs of Pre-Han China, ed. Nienhauser, William H. Jr. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 295–302 Google Scholar.

29. Shi ji, 40.1724–29Google Scholar. The major difference between this description and the biography is that Qu Yuan is only mentioned in the “Chu shijia” as an emissary coming back from the state of Qi 齊, while the warning of King Huai against his going to Qin 秦 is expressed verbatim by a person called Zhao Sui 昭睢.

30. Shi ji, 84.2482 Google Scholar.

31. Shi ji, 130.3300 Google Scholar. The connection between certain biographies and Sima Qian's own fate via his theory of literature is described in Durrant, Stephen, The Cloudy Mirror: Tensions and Conflicts in the Writings of Sima Qian (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 13ffGoogle Scholar.

32. That the biography is a fabrication based on a variety of sources is demonstrated by Misao, Ishikawa 石川三佐男, “Shiki no Kutsugen den to « Shoku’o onki » « Betsurei den » ni tsuite” 《史記》の屈原傳と《蜀王本記》《鼈靈傳》について, Akita daigaku Kyoikubu jinbun kagaku shakai kagaku kenkyū kiyō 秋田大學教育部人文科學社會科學研究紀要 43 (1992), 24ffGoogle Scholar.

33. Shi ji, 84.2485 Google Scholar. Since the remark refers again to King Huai and no other works attributed to Qu Yuan have been mentioned in the biography's text before, I take yi pian 一篇 to address the “Li sao” once again. The solution “His desire to maintain his lord, to revive the state, and to reverse [the course of recent events] he expressed three times in a scroll,” presented in the translation in Nienhauser seems less convincing. In a footnote, the translator argues that the piece (篇) is variously identified as “Zhao hun” 招魂 or “Li sao.” Compare Nienhauser, , The Grand Scribe's Records, 298n35Google Scholar.

34. Soji sakuin, 66-67. On the identification of Lan as a person in “Li sao” compare the following section on Liu Xiang.

35. Xin xu zhuzi suoyin 新序逐字索引 (The Concordance to the Xinxu), ed. Lau, D. C. and Chen, F. C. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1993), 39–40 (section 7.19)Google Scholar.

36. Soji sakuin, 66-68. Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1136-1200) was the first scholar who objected to the link of the expressions lan and jiao to historical persons. Compare his remark in “Chu ci bianzheng shang” 楚辭辯證上 in his Chu ci jizhu 楚辭集注 contained in Baibu congshu 百部叢書 75.4 (Taibei: Wenyi, 1965), 12b–13a Google Scholar.

37. Shi ji, 84.2503 Google Scholar.

38. Han shu, 87.3515 Google Scholar.

39. Knechtges, , “Han fu,” 18 Google Scholar.

40. Knechtges, , “Han fu,” 18–22 Google Scholar.

41. Han shu, 87.3516 Google Scholar.

42. Soji sakuin, 509.

43. Soji sakuin, 65.

44. Han shu, 87.3518 Google Scholar.

45. Compare Shisanjing zhushu, 297.2 Google Scholar.

46. Compare lines 30, 31, 45, 47 and 128 of the “Li sao”; Soji sakuin, 21, 22, 27, 28 and 57 Google Scholar.

47. Han shu, 87.3519 Google Scholar.

48. Compare “Yu fu,” line 1, Soji sakuin, 296; “Ai Ying” line 11A, Soji sakuin, 218-19.

49. Han shu, 87.3519 Google Scholar. Lines 29-30 of the “Fan sao” contain expressions from the following lines of the “Li sao”: (29) 169B, 34A; Soji sakuin, 69, 23.

50. Han shu, 87.3520 Google Scholar.

51. Soji sakuin, 18.

52. Han shu, 87.3521 Google Scholar.

53. Soji sakuin, 40-41.

54. Note that even though both examples within the “Li sao” contain the same construction, gu 固 is one time used as a full verb, one time as an adverb. Compare Soji sakuin, 15, 29.

55. Dongguan Han ji zhuzi suoyin 東觀漢記逐字索引 (The Concordance to the Dongguan Han ji), ed. Lau, D. C. and Chen, F. C. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1994), 80 (section 12.10)Google Scholar.

56. Hou Han shu, 34.1171 Google Scholar.

57. Concordance to the Dongguan Han ji, 80.

58. Concordance to the Dongguan Han ji, 80.

59. Concordance to the Dongguan Han ji, 81.

60. Compare Lun yu 15.9 Google Scholar ( Shisanjing zhushu, 2517.2)Google Scholar.

61. That Ban Gu wrote a commentary on the “Li sao” is confirmed by Wang Yi's introduction to the Songs of Chu: Soji sakuin, 79.

62. Soji sakuin, 83-84.

63. Qu Boyu 蘧伯玉 or Qu Yuan 蘧瑗 is mentioned in the Lun yu 15.6 Google Scholar as an example of right behavior in times of bad government. Ning Wuzi 甯武子 is described in Lun yu 5.21 Google Scholar as a sage who knew when to feign madness.

64. For the rendering of this term compare Soji Sakuin, 314.

65. With the help of the commentary by Li Shan 李善 of the Tang dynasty, Tang Bingzheng 湯炳正 is able to demonstrate that the expression “dark marriage” 冥婚 is a copyist's mistake. The original term must have been Dihun 帝婚, the name of the guardian of the gate to heaven. Bingzheng, Tang, Chu ci leigao 楚辭類稿 (Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, 1988), 89 Google Scholar. Soji sakuin, 49. Some sources associate Lady Fu with the spirit of the River Luo. The earliest proof for this association is the “Rhapsody of the Spirit of the Luo” (Luoshen fu 洛神賦) by Cao Zhi 曹植 (192-232).

66. Soji sakuin, 21.

67. Soji sakuin, 84.

68. Soji sakuin, 84.

69. According to Cui Fuzhang 崔富章, the oldest trace of the “Li sao” and another poem of the Songs of Chu was found on a fragment of a bamboo strip in the grave of the marquis of Ruyin 汝陰 dated to the year 165 b.c.e. See Fuzhang, Cui, “ Chu ci banben yuanliu kaosuo” 楚辭板本源流考索, Zhejiang xuekan 浙江學刊 1987.1, 122ffGoogle Scholar. Yet the source given by him, Anhui sheng wenwu gongzuo dui 安徽文物工作隊, “Fuyang Shuanggudui Xi Han Ruyin Hou mu fajue jianbao” 阜陽雙古堆西漢汝陰侯墓發掘簡報, Wenwu 文物 1978.8, 12–31, does not mention this particular findGoogle Scholar.

70. Compare Waley's famous statement: “All the commentaries, from Wang Pi's onwards down to the eighteenth century, are ‘scriptural’; that is to say that each commentator reinterprets the text according to his own particular tenets, without any intention or desire to discover what it meant originally. From my point of view they are therefore useless” in The Way and its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching and its Place in Chinese Thought (New York: Grove, 1958), 129 Google Scholar.

71. One indicator for this position is the phenomenon of commentary critique within translations from the Chinese. For example, in his footnotes to his translations of the Chinese classics, James Legge repeatedly mentions the commentary of Zhu Xi only to add that he considered the Song commentator's understanding to be false or bizarre. There are, of course, other examples like Eduard Erkes, whose work until the early forties concentrated on commentaries to the Songs of Chu or the Daode jing 道德經. See his “Ho-shang-kung's commentary on Lao Tse,” Artibus Asiae 8 (1940), 120–96; 9 (1946), 197-220; 12 (1949), 221-51Google Scholar. Still, his translations reveal his conception of commentaries as guides for the reader instead of literary works in their own right.

72. Hardly any complete examples of Section and Sentence commentaries have survived. What can be gathered from the sources is that their annotations to a single classic seemed to have grown to a size that could hardly be handled by a pupil in one lifetime. Accordingly, the annotation to the first four characters of the Book of Documents (Shang shu 尚書) consisted of more than 10,000 characters. Here seems to lie one reason for their being characterized as bookish and long-winded. On the circulation and the polemic against Section and Sentence commentaries, see my “Tracing the Section and Sentence Commentary of the Han dynasty,” Papers from the XIII EACS Conference ‘The Spirit of the Metropolis’ (CD, Torino: Università degle Studi di Torino, 2002)Google Scholar.

73. Hou Han shu, 70.2618 Google Scholar. The listed writings at the end of the biography and the remark from another source that Wang Yi later became prefect of Yuzhang 豫章 (the modern province of Jiangxi) points to a greater eminence than the biography suggests. See Kyushubon Monzen shuchu zankan 舊鈔本文選集注殘卷 contained in Kyūto teikoku daigaku bungakubu keiin kyūshōbon 舊都帝國大學部景印舊鈔本 (Kyōto: Imperial University Library, 1934-1941), 3-9.5717 Google Scholar.

74. Soji sakuin, 78-79.

75. Li Daming 李大明 provides further proofs that the “Li sao” was already called a classic before the commentary of Wang Yi appeared. Compare his “ Li sao chengjing shijian xinlun” 離騷成經時間新論, Sichuan shifan daxue xuebao 四川師范大學學報, Shehui kexueban 社會科學版, 1993.1, 47fGoogle Scholar.

76. For the duration of zhangju type commentary writing see the first part of “Tracing the Section and Sentence Commentary.”

77. With the exception of one entry in the Shuowen jiezi, nothing is left of a commentary on the “Li sao” by Kui, Jia. Shen, Xu 許慎, Yucai, Duan 段玉裁, Shuowen jiezi zhu 說文解字注 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji, 1983), 617 Google Scholar.

78. Soji sakuin, 82. Shisanjing zhushu, 341.2 Google Scholar.

79. Soji sakuin, 12.

80. Soji sakuin, 82. The translation of the plant Sumang 宿莽 as “lasting reed” follows the reading of Wang Yi who understands su as “hardy.” Jiang Liangfu 姜亮夫 shows that, due to the varieties of mang grasses, it is impossible to determine the exact plant. Compare his Chu ci tonggu 楚辭通故 (Jinan: Jilu shushe, 1985), 3.604–6Google Scholar.

81. Soji sakuin, 84.

82. My rendering is based on Wilhelm, Richard, I Ging – Das Buch der Wandlungen (Düsseldorf: Eugen Diedrichs, 1976), 29 Google Scholar.

83. Shisanjing zhushu, 15.3 Google Scholar.

84. Soji sakuin, 13-14. The expression “highest or deepest Yin” (taiyin 太陰) is also used within the poem “The Far Journey” (“Yuan you” 遠遊) in the sense of designating a particular realm (Soji sakuin, 535). Jiang Liangfu notes that the later usage of the term meaning moon or winter in opposition to sun and summer (taiyang 太陽) is different from that in Han times. Chu ci tonggu, 1.17 Google Scholar. In the Xi ci 繫辭 the expression dishu 地數 refers to even Yin numbers. Compare Shisanjing zhushu, 80.2 Google Scholar. Consequently the term rendered “stipulations of heaven” (tiandu 天度) here should refer to the uneven Yang numbers, i. e., the chain of earth's processes that determines human life on earth.

85. Soji sakuin, 43. Shisanjing zhushu, 14.1 Google Scholar.

86. Soji sakuin, 43.

87. Soji sakuin, 43.

88. Soji sakuin, 43.

89. The idea of considering the entire second half of the “Li sao” as imagined by the poet goes back to the Song philosopher Zhu Xi. The conception that some of the poems contained in the Songs of Chu had been modeled on crude ancient ritual songs is mentioned by Wang Yi in his preface to the “Nine Songs” (“Jiu ge” 九歌). The idea of the connection of parts of the anthology with so-called ‘Chu shamanism’ has its origin in Wang Yi's remark and is a rather recent phenomenon.

90. Examples from the Huainanzi related to the “Li sao” are mentioned in the section on Liu An's Treatise on the Li sao in the present article.

91. A detailed survey of all quotations contained in the commentary to the “Li sao” is contained in Michael Schimmelpfennig, Qu Yuan's Transformation from Realized Man to True Poet: The Han-Dynasty Commentary of Wang Yi to the “Li sao” and the Songs of Chu, 2 vols. German, with English Summary and Results (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 2000), 460–513 Google Scholar.

92. Soji sakuin, 8-9.

93. Yu, Pauline, The Reading of Imagery in the Chinese Poetic Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 104ff.Google Scholar, and the review by Hartman, Charles, “Images of Allegory: A Review Article,” Early China 14 (1989), 191ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

94. Compare his Readings in Chinese Literary Thought (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), 258 Google Scholar.

95. The examples are taken from the commentaries to line 13 and 17 of the “Li sao,” Soji sakuin, 15, 17 Google Scholar. For the sake of a clearer presentation, other glosses and the paraphrases are left out. The translation of the poem's lines is extrapolated from the commentary of Wang Yi.”

96. Yu, Pauline speaks of the “substitutive mode of imagery” (The Reading of Imagery, 84f.)Google Scholar.

97. Qu Yuan is added to the translation of the second paraphrases since Wang Yi in the first use of such a paraphrase explicitly adds his name. Compare line 8 (Soji sakuin, 14).

98. Soji sakuin, 65-66.

99. Lines 9 and 95B are marked with an asterisk since the commentary to 95B only contains a cross-reference to line 9 based on an analogy. Angular brackets signify that the determination for lines 177-81 is complicated by the fact that the second paraphrases are syntactically deviating.

100. Due to the fact that the texts that contain the majority of references to the “Li sao” are critical of Qu Yuan, it is no wonder that other sections that tell of the poet's purity, his frankness, and his high principles are rarely quoted. It is those sections that also tell of the gathering, planting and binding of flowers. Here may lie one reason why Wang Yi's claim of the connection of the “Li sao” with the Book of Songs rests primarily on those passages which were rarely considered by his forerunners.

101. Please note that the extrapolative translation of the line through the commentary of Wang Yi leads to the additions to the translation contained in square brackets.

102. Soji sakuin, 77.

103. Shisanjing zhushu, 68.

104. Shisanjing zhushu, 68. The commentary of Wang Bi was chosen due to a lack of a Han dynasty commentary to this line statement. My own translation slightly deviates from the one by Lynn, Richard, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Pi (New York: Columbia University, 1994), 491–92Google Scholar.

105. Soji sakuin, 57.

106. Soji sakuin, 29.

107. Soji sakuin, 22.

108. Lines 7, 9, 10, 11, 33, 95-98, 111, 150, and 167 of the poem. Soji sakuin, 13-15, 22-23, 45-46, 51, 64, 69.

109. Compare Soji sakuin, 79 and 14, 69. A detailed analysis of this and other threads is provided in my Qu Yuan's Transformation from Realized Man to True Poet, 514-62.

110. For the few remains of Guo Pu's commentary, see, for example, Zhongguo Chu ci xue shi, 96-98.

111. Compare the Sui shu 隋書 (History of the Sui Dynasty), ed. Zheng, Wei 魏徵 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1982), 1055 Google Scholar.