The Lament
   HOME
*





The Lament
"''Li Sao''" (; translation: "Encountering Sorrow") is an ancient Chinese poem from the anthology ''Chuci'' traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan. ''Li Sao'' dates from the late 3rd century BCE, during the Chinese Warring States period. Background The poem "Li Sao" is in the ''Chuci'' collection and is traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan of the Kingdom of Chu, who died about 278 BCE. Qu Yuan manifests himself in a poetic character, in the tradition of Classical Chinese poetry, contrasting with the anonymous poetic voices encountered in the ''Shijing'' and the other early poems which exist as preserved in the form of incidental incorporations into various documents of ancient miscellany. The rest of the ''Chuci'' anthology is centered on the "''Li Sao''", the purported biography of its author Qu Yuan. In "''Li Sao''", the poet despairs that he has been plotted against by evil factions at court with his resulting rejection by his lord and then recounts a series of shamanistic s ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Chinese Classics
Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucian tradition, themselves a customary abridgment of the "Thirteen Classics". All of these pre-Qin texts were written in classical Chinese. All three canons are collectively known as the classics ( t , s , ''jīng'', lit. "warp"). The term Chinese classic texts may be broadly used in reference to texts which were written in vernacular Chinese or it may be narrowly used in reference to texts which were written in the classical Chinese which was current until the fall of the last imperial dynasty, the Qing, in 1912. These texts can include ''shi'' (, historical works), ''zi'' (, philosophical works belonging to schools of thought other than the Confucian but also including works on agriculture, medicine, mathematics, astronomy ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

History Of China
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapters, 11th century BC), the '' Bamboo Annals'' (c. 296 BC) and the ''Records of the Grand Historian'' (c. 91 BC) describe a Xia dynasty before the Shang, but no writing is known from the period, and Shang writings do not indicate the existence of the Xia. The Shang ruled in the Yellow River valley, which is commonly held to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, Neolithic civilizations originated at various cultural centers along both the Yellow River and Yangtze River. These Yellow River and Yangtze civilizations arose millennia before the Shang. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is among the world's oldest civilizations and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization. The Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) supp ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Chu Ci
The ''Chu ci'', variously translated as ''Verses of Chu,'' ''Songs of Chu'', or ''Elegies of Chu'', is an ancient anthology of Chinese poetry including works traditionally attributed mainly to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States period (ended 221 BC), and also a large number of works composed several centuries later, during the Han dynasty.Hawkes, David. Ch'u Tz'u: ''Songs of the South, an Ancient Chinese Anthology''. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 28. The traditional version of the ''Chu ci'' contains 17 major sections, anthologized with its current contents by Wang Yi (librarian), Wang Yi, a 2nd-century AD librarian who served under Emperor Shun of Han. The early (pre-Qin dynasty) Classical Chinese poetry is mainly known through the two anthologies the ''Chu ci'' and the ''Shi Jing, Shi jing'' (''Classic of Poetry'' or ''Book of Songs''). Background ''Chu ci'' was named after a form of poetry that originated in the Chu (state), State of Chu, which was located i ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis D'Hervey De Saint Denys
Marie-Jean-Léon Lecoq, Baron d'Hervey de Juchereau, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys (; 6 May 1822 – 2 November 1892) son of Pierre Marin Alexandre Le Coq or Lecoq, Baron d'Hervey (1780-1858), and Marie Louise Josephine Mélanie Juchereau de Saint-Denys (1789-1844) was born on 6 May 1822. D'Hervey was a French sinologist also known for his research on dreams. Contributions to Sinology Hervey de Saint Denys made an intense study of Chinese, and in 1851 D'Hervey published his ''Recherches sur l'agriculture et l'horticulture des Chinois'' (Transl: ''Research on the agriculture and horticulture of the Chinese''), in which he dealt with the plants and animals that potentially might be able to be acclimatized to and introduced in Western countries. He translated as well Chinese texts as some Chinese stories, not of classical interest, but valuable for the light they throw on Chinese culture and customs. He was a man of letters too. E.g. he translated some Spanish-language wor ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Red Pine (author)
Bill Porter (born October 3, 1943) is an American author who translates under the pen-name Red Pine (). He is a translator of Chinese texts, primarily Taoist and Buddhist, including poetry and sūtras. In 2018, he won the American Academy of Arts & Letters Thornton Wilder Prize for translation. Early life In an interview with Andy Ferguson for Tricycle Magazine in 2000, Red Pine revealed some of the details of his early life. His father, Arnold Porter, grew up on a cotton farm in Arkansas. At an early age, he became part of a notorious bank robbing gang that robbed banks from the south northwards to Michigan. In a shoot out with the police, all the gang members were killed except Porter who was wounded and subsequently sent to prison. Nevertheless, after six years he was pardoned by the governor of Michigan and released; an inheritance from the sale of the family farm allowed him to enter the hotel business and to become a multimillionaire. Porter moved to Los Angeles, where Bil ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Stephen Owen (academic)
Stephen Owen (born October 30, 1946) is an American sinologist specializing in Chinese literature, particularly Tang dynasty poetry and comparative poetics. He taught Chinese literature and comparative literature at Harvard University and is James Bryant Conant University Professor, Emeritus; becoming emeritus before he was one of only 25 Harvard University Professors. He is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of American Philosophical Society. Owen graduated from Yale University in 1968 and continued at Yale as a graduate student, receiving his doctorate in 1972 under Hans Fränkel. He taught at Yale from 1972 to 1982, when he went to Harvard. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and held a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other awards and honors. In 2015, he completed a six-volume annotated translation of the complete poems of Du Fu. He was jointly awarded the 2018 Tang Prize in Sinology with Yoshinobu Shiba. Scholarly career Owen has written or edited ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Lim Boon Keng
Lim Boon Keng (; 18 October 1869 – 1 January 1957) was a Peranakan physician who advocated social and educational reforms in Singapore in the early 20th-century. He also served as the president of Xiamen University in China between 1921 and 1937. Beginning Life Lim was born on 18 October 1869 in Singapore, Straits Settlements as the third generation of a Peranakan with ancestry from Haicheng Town, Longhai City, Fujian Province based from his grandfather Lim Mah Peng who first emigrated to Penang, Malaya in 1839, where he married a Straits-born Chinese woman. Lim Mah Peng would later move to Singapore where his only son, Lim Thean Geow (), the father of Lim Boon Keng, was born. Lim studied at Raffles Institution. However, the death of his parents during his childhood inspired him to pursue a career in medicine. In 1887, Lim became the first Singaporean to receive a Queen's Scholarship. He gained admission to the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 1892 with a first-cl ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

James Legge
James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the London Missionary Society in Malacca and Hong Kong (1840–1873) and was the first Professor of Chinese at Oxford University (1876–1897). In association with Max Müller he prepared the monumental ''Sacred Books of the East'' series, published in 50 volumes between 1879 and 1891. Early life James Legge was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire. He enrolled in Aberdeen Grammar School at age 13 and then King's College, Aberdeen at age 15. He then continued his studies at Highbury Theological College, London. Mission to China and family Legge went, in 1839, as a missionary to China, but first stayed at Malacca three years, in charge of the Anglo-Chinese College there. The College was subsequently moved to Hong Kong, where Legge lived for nearly thirt ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

China Review
''The China Review: Or, Notes and Queries on the Far East'' was an academic journal published in Hong Kong from 1872 to 1901 as an outlet for scholarly writings on China written by foreign scholars, mainly those living on the China coast. The journal was edited in its initial years by Nicholas Belfeld Dennys, editor of the ''China Mail'', a Hong Kong newspaper. In the first volume, Dennys stated that the review would include original papers on "the Arts and Sciences, Ethnology, Folklore, Geography, History, Literature, Mythology, Manners and Customs, Natural History, Religion, etc." and would cover "China, Japan, Mongolia, Tibet, The Eastern Archipelago, and the 'Far East' generally." He noted that the purpose was similar to ''Notes and Queries on China and Japan'', which had ceased publication in 1869. The second editor-in-chief was Ernst Johann Eitel, a former missionary of the Basel Mission and the London Missionary Society. The journal was not supported by any church, but mis ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Xiao Yuncong
Xiao Yuncong (; 1596–1673) was a famed Chinese landscape painter, calligrapher, and poet during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.Cihai: Page 594. Xiao was born in Wuhu in Anhui province, at that time part of Taiping Prefecture. His style name was 'Chimu' () and his pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ... was 'Wumen Daoren' (). Later in life he acquired the pseudonyms 'Zhongshan Laoren' () and 'Anhui Wuhuren' (). Xiao was known for his landscape paintings such as the ''Taiping shanshui tuhua'' ()* which used dry and twisting brushstrokes called ''gui shu pai'' (). He did not follow any previous artist's style. In calligraphy, he produced the work ''Mei Hua Tang Posthumous manuscript'' (). He remained a lifelong Ming dynasty supporter.Barnhart: Page 271. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaking ethnic group who unified other Jurchen tribes to form a new "Manchu" ethnic identity. The dynasty was officially proclaimed in 1636 in Manchuria (modern-day Northeast China and Outer Manchuria). It seized control of Beijing in 1644, then later expanded its rule over the whole of China proper and Taiwan, and finally expanded into Inner Asia. The dynasty lasted until 1912 when it was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution. In orthodox Chinese historiography, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The multiethnic Qing dynasty lasted for almost three centuries and assembled the territorial base for modern China. It was the largest imperial dynasty in the history of China and in 1790 the f ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]