Jiu Zhang (
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
: Jiu Zhang; en, Nine Pieces) is a collection of poems attributed to
Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan ( – 278 BCE) was a Chinese poet and politician in the Chu (state), State of Chu during the Warring States period. He is known for his patriotism and contributions to Classical Chinese poetry, classical poetry and verses, ...
and printed in the
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 ...
(楚辭 ''Songs of Chu'', sometimes ''Songs of the South'').
Title translation
''Jiu zhang'' is a transliteration of the title of this section of the ''
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 ...
''. ''Jiu'' means nine, as in the number. It is not entirely clear why this number was chosen to divide this work into sections, although performance purposes or imitation of prior ''Chu ci'' works are both likely factors. ''Zhang'' was commonly used in ancient Chinese to mean a section of a literary work, such as a paragraph of a prose piece or for a stanza of a song or poem. ''Jiu zhang'' may also be translated into English alternatively, such as Nine Declarations.
The nine pieces
The nine poems of the ''Jiu Zhang'' form a diverse collection.
Table of contents
The "Nine Pieces" consists of nine titles of poems:
Note that poem numbers 1, 6, 7, and 9 actually lack titles in the original text; rather, they are named for the sake of convenience after the first few words with which these poems begin.
[Hawkes:1985, 152] English titles based on David Hawkes' translations.
See also
*
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 ...
*
List of Chuci contents
This is a list of the sections and individual pieces contained within the ancient poetry anthology ''Chu Ci'' (), also known as ''Songs of the South'' or ''Songs of Chu'', which is an anthology of Classical Chinese poetry verse traditionally attr ...
*
Liu An
Liú Ān (, c. 179–122 BC) was a Han dynasty Chinese prince, ruling the Huainan Kingdom, and an advisor to his nephew, Emperor Wu of Han (武帝). He is best known for editing the (139 BC) ''Huainanzi'' compendium of Daoist, Confucianist, and ...
*
Liu Xiang (scholar)
Liu Xiang (77–6BCE), born Liu Gengsheng and bearing the courtesy name Zizheng, was a Chinese astronomer, historian, poet, politician, librarian, and writer of the Western Han Dynasty. Among his polymathic scholarly specialties were history, l ...
*
Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan ( – 278 BCE) was a Chinese poet and politician in the Chu (state), State of Chu during the Warring States period. He is known for his patriotism and contributions to Classical Chinese poetry, classical poetry and verses, ...
*
Song Yu
Song Yu (; 298–263 BC) was a Chinese poet from the late Warring States period, and is known as the traditional author of a number of poems in the ''Verses of Chu (Chu ci'' 楚辭'')''. Among the ''Verses of Chu'' poems usually attributed to ...
*
Wang Yi (librarian)
Wang Yi (; ), courtesy name Shushi (), was a Chinese poet during the Eastern Han dynasty who was employed in the Imperial Library by the Later Han emperor Shun Di (). Wang Yi is known for his work on the poetry anthology ''Chu Ci''. Although w ...
Notes
References
*
Hawkes, David, translation, introduction, and notes (2011
985
Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theoph ...
. Qu Yuan ''et al.'', ''The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology of Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets''. London: Penguin Books.
{{Chinese poetry
Chinese poems