Li Sao

"Li Sao" (Chinese:離騷; literally: "Encountering Sorrow"") is a Chinese poem dating from the Warring States period of ancient China. The early poetic tradition of China survives mainly through two anthologies, one being the Chuci, the other being the formally distinct Classic of Poetry (or Shijing). The poem "Li Sao" is the lead poem and the main inspiration for the Chuci collection. This famous piece was written by the person generally known as Qu Yuan, an aristocrat of the Kingdom of Chu. In his signature poem "Li Sao", Qu Yuan manifests himself in a poetic character, which is a major landmark 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, and often its innovative epic poetic lines. In the "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 spirit journeys to various mythological realms, engaging or attempting to engage with a variety of divine or spiritual beings, with the theme of the righteous minister unfairly rejected sometimes becoming exaggerated in the long history of later literary criticism and allegorical interpretation. Dating from the time of King Huai of Chu, in the late third century BCE, the poem "Li Sao" is a remarkable example of Chinese poetry.