Studies in the History of Chinese Texts Qu Yuan and Chuci

This volume offers new perspectives on the Chinese arch-poet Qu Yuan and the Lyrics of Chu, including fresh analyses of Chuci poetics, richly annotated translations, and multi-faceted scholarship on the composition and early history of the ancient anthology’s core poems. In this volume, leading scholars of early Chinese literature offer new, multi-faceted research on the ancient anthology Lyrics of Chu ( Chuci). Through meticulous textual analysis, richly annotated translations, and theoretical reflection, they challenge millennia-old assumptions about China’s arch-poet Qu Yuan (ca. 300 BCE), his authorship, and the composition of the lyrics attributed to him, above all the “Li sao” (Encountering Sorrow), ancient China’s grandest poem. Thoroughly original insights into the poetics and aesthetics of Chuci poetry reopen these resplendent lyrics to a fresh appraisal of their captivating qualities and their foundational significance for the Chinese literary tradition. Contributors are: Lucas Rambo Bender, Heng Du, Michael Hunter, Martin Kern, Paul W. Kroll, and Stephen Owen.