Chu Ci

Chu Ci
Qu Yuan Sang while Walking (Quzi xingyin tu 屈子行吟圖), by Chen Hongshou (1616)
Author(trad.) Qu Yuan, Song Yu
Original title楚辭
LanguageClassical Chinese
GenrePoetry
Publication placeChina
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese楚辭
Simplified Chinese楚辞
Literal meaning"Words of Chu"[1]
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinChǔ cí
Gwoyeu RomatzyhChuu tsyr
Wade–GilesCh'u3 tz'ŭ2
IPA[ʈʂʰù tsʰɹ̩̌]
Wu
SuzhouneseTshòu zý
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationChó chìh
JyutpingCo2 ci4
IPA[tsʰɔ˧˥ tsʰi˩]
Southern Min
Tâi-lôTshóo sû
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinesehjó zi
Old Chinese
Baxter–Sagart (2014)*s.r̥aʔ sə.lə

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, as well as a large number of works composed during the Han dynasty several centuries later.[2][3] The traditional version of the Chu Ci contains 17 major sections, anthologized with its current contents by Wang Yi, a 2nd-century AD librarian who served under Emperor Shun of Han.[2] Classical Chinese poetry prior to the Qin dynasty is largely known through the Chu Ci and the Classic of Poetry.[4]

  1. ^ Hawkes (1985), p. 28.
  2. ^ a b Hawkes, David. Ch'u Tz'u: Songs of the South, an Ancient Chinese Anthology. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 28.
  3. ^ Kern 2012.
  4. ^ "Sao Poetry," Fusheng Wu pp. 36–58. In Zong-Qi Cai, ed., How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-231-13940-3.