China: The Warring States period poet Qu Yuan (339-278 BCE)

Qu Yuan (Chinese: 屈原; pinyin: Qū Yuán; Wade–Giles: Ch'ü Yüan) (339 BCE – 278 BCE) was a Chinese poet who lived during the Warring States Period in ancient China. He is famous for his contributions to the poetry collection known as the Chu-ci (also known as Songs of the South or Songs of Chu). The Chuci together with the Shi Jing are the two great collections of ancient Chinese verse.

Historical details about Qu Yuan's life are few, and his authorship of many Chu-ci poems have been questioned at length. However, he is widely accepted to have written Li Sao, the most well-known of the Chu-ci poems, and possibly several others in the collection, as well. The first known reference to Qu Yuan appears in a poem written in 174 BCE by Jia Yi, an official from Luoyang who was slandered by jealous officials and banished to Changsha by Emperor Wen of Han. While traveling, he wrote a poem describing the similar fate of a previous 'Qu Yuan'. Eighty years later, the first known biography of Qu Yuan's life appeared in Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, though it contains a number of contradictory details.

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