Traditional Biography
Qu Yuan's Names | |
---|---|
Chinese: | 屈原 |
Pinyin: | Qū Yuán |
Ancestral name (姓, xìng) | Mi |
Chinese: | 芈 (Mǐ) |
Clan name (氏, shì)) | : Qu |
Chinese: | 屈 (Qū) |
Given name (名, míng): | Ping |
Chinese: | 平 (Píng) |
Courtesy name (字, zì): | Yuan |
Chinese: | 原 (Yuán) |
Alias Given name (自名): | Zhengze |
Traditional Chinese: | 正則 |
Simplified Chinese: | 正则 |
Alias Courtesy name (號/别字): | Lingjun |
Traditional Chinese: | 霛均 |
Simplified Chinese: | 灵均 |
Sima Qian's biography of Qu Yuan, though circumstantial and probably influenced greatly by Sima's own identification with Qu, is the traditional source of information on his life. Sima wrote that Qu was descended from a branch of the Chu royal clan and served as an official under King Huai of Chu (reigned 328–289 BCE). Qu was said to have advocated a policy of alliance with the other kingdoms of the period against the hegemonic Qin state, which threatened to dominate them all. However, the king fell under the influence of other corrupt, jealous ministers who slandered Qu Yuan and banished his most loyal counselors. It is said that Qu Yuan returned first to his family's home town. In his exile, he spent much of this time collecting legends and rearranging folk odes while traveling the countryside, producing some of the greatest poetry in Chinese literature and expressing fervent love for his state and his deepest concerns for its future.
According to legend, his anxiety brought him to an increasingly troubled state of health; during his depression, he would often take walks near a certain well, during which he would look upon his reflection in the water and his own person, thin and gaunt. According to legend, this well became known as the "Face Reflection Well." Today on a hillside in Xiangluping in in what is today Hubei province's Zigui County, there is a well which is considered to be the original well from the time of Qu Yuan.
In 278 BCE, learning of the capture of his country's capital, Ying, by General Bai Qi of the state of Qin, Qu Yuan is said to have written the lengthy poem of lamentation called "Lament for Ying" and later to have waded into the Miluo river in today's Hunan Province holding a great rock in order to commit ritual suicide as a form of protest against the corruption of the era.
Read more about this topic: Qu Yuan
Famous quotes containing the words traditional and/or biography:
“The traditional husband/father has always made choices concerning career, life-styles, values, and directions for the whole family, but he generally had another person on the teamcalled a wife. And his duties were always clear: Bring home the bacon and take out the garbage.”
—Donna N. Douglass (20th century)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every mans life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (174095)