Popular Chine Stories 中国传统故事 英文版

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Popular Chine Stories

The Death of Qū Yuán 屈原

On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the day of the dragon boat festival (Duānwǔ jié 端午节),

people eat zòngzi 粽子 (although people also eat them at other times, since they are delicious).

The association of zòngzi with this occasion is said to be in memory of the poet QŪ Yuán 屈原, an

official of the state of Chǔ 楚 during the Warring States Period (period 04e, 200s and 300s BC). The

famous warring states included Yān 燕, Qí 齐, Zhào 赵, Wèi 魏, Hán 韩, Chǔ 楚, And Qín 秦,

as well as the diminutive Wèi 卫, Dōngzhōu 东周, Sòng 宋, and Lǔ 鲁 (where Confucius lived).

Among all the, the state of Qín was by far the most powerful and sought to dominate or absorb the

others. (Eventually it succeeded. That’s where the Qín dynasty came from.)

Qū Yuán was a scion of an aristocratic family and a trusted counlor at the court of king Huái, 怀),

where he was an advocate of clo alliances with the other states in the hope of frustrating Qín’s

expansionist ambitions. But he was hated by an envious competitor for the king's attention. In the late

280s BC the state of Qín 秦 broke its alliance with Chǔ, and many battles ensued. eventually Qín

suggested that the Chǔ monarch go to Qín for peace talks. Qū Yuán counled against doing so, for

he did not trust Qín. But king Huái's son Qǐng Xiāng 楚顷襄 argued in favor of the trip, and king

Huái went.

As Qū Yuán had predicted, king Huái was arrested, held in exile in Qín for three years, and finally

executed. Meanwhile his son Qǐng Xiāng became monarch, and lected Qū Yuán's old enemy as his

prime minister, who immediately persuaded him to have Qū Yuán banished. He moved to his old

home in what is today northern Húběi 湖北 and spent his time collecting folklore and writing

poetry.

In 278 BC Qín forces, under the command of the famous general BÁI Qǐ 白起, occupied Yǐng 郢,

the Chǔ capital (in modern Jiānglíng county 江陵县 in Húběi).

Qū Yuán was in despair both at the injustice of his exile and at the loss of his homeland to the Qín

conquerors becau his advice had not been followed. He commemorated his sorrow in a long poem

still widely respected, called "Leaving the Tumult" or “The Sorrow of Leaving” (Lǐsāo 离骚)

(usually translated “Encountering Sorrow”) and in many other melancholy poems, often including

the word lament (āi 哀) in the title, such as "Lament for [the Fall of] Yǐng" (Āi Yǐng 哀郢).

Eventually on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, overcome by his depression, Qū Yuán

committed suicide by jumping into the nearby Mìluó river 汨罗江.

People were unable to find his body, and made sacrifices to his spirit by throwing rice into the river.

Later, fearing that the rice would be too readily eaten by fish, they tied the rice into wrappings of

bamboo leaves. (Other accounts say that the wrapped rice was thrown in to feed the fish and thus

prevent them from eating Qū Yuán's body.)

Although people do not throw rice into rivers any more, the custom of preparing and eating rice

wrapped in bamboo leaves (zòngzi 粽子) is still associated with the fifth day of the fifth month.

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