屈原賈生列傳

Qu Yuan, personal name Ping, was of the same ruling surname as the Chu royal house. He served King Huai of Chu as Left Counselor. Widely learned with a powerful memory, perceptive about order and disorder, and skilled in rhetoric. At court he deliberated state affairs with the king and drafted royal edicts; abroad he received guests and responded to the feudal lords. The king placed great trust in him.

The Grand Officer of the Upper Court held the same rank and, competing for favor, was jealous of Qu Yuan's abilities. When King Huai commissioned Qu Yuan to draft new regulations, Qu Ping had not yet finalized the text. The Grand Officer saw it and tried to appropriate it, but Qu Ping refused to hand it over. The Grand Officer then slandered him, saying: "The king commissioned Qu Ping to draft the regulations — everyone knows it. Yet every time a regulation is issued, Ping boasts of his achievement, as if to say 'No one but I could have done this.'" The king was angered and distanced himself from Qu Ping.

Qu Ping was pained that the king's hearing was not discerning, that slanderers and flatterers obscured his judgment, that the crooked harmed the public good, and that the upright found no acceptance. In grief and deep contemplation, he composed the Li Sao. Li Sao means 'encountering sorrow.' Heaven is the origin of man; father and mother are man's root. When a person is driven to extremity, he returns to his root — thus in toil, exhaustion, and utter weariness, one never fails to cry out to Heaven; in pain and bitter anguish, one never fails to cry out to one's parents. Qu Ping walked the straight path and acted with rectitude, exhausting his loyalty and wisdom in service to his lord, yet slanderers came between them. He may be called a man driven to extremity. To be trusted yet suspected, to be loyal yet maligned — how could he not feel resentment? Qu Ping's composition of the Li Sao was born of this resentment.

After Qu Ping was dismissed, Qin plotted to attack Qi. Since Qi and Chu were in a vertical alliance, King Hui of Qin was worried. He ordered Zhang Yi to pretend to leave Qin's service, bring lavish gifts, and pledge himself to Chu, saying: "Qin deeply hates Qi. Since Qi and Chu are in an alliance, if Chu would truly sever its ties with Qi, Qin is willing to cede the 600-li territory of Shang and Yu." King Huai of Chu, greedy and trusting Zhang Yi, broke with Qi and sent envoys to Qin to receive the territory. Zhang Yi then said: "I agreed with the king on six li, not six hundred." The Chu envoy left in fury and reported to King Huai. King Huai was enraged and launched a massive invasion of Qin. Qin sent troops to counter, crushing the Chu army at Dan and Xi, beheading 80,000, capturing the Chu general Qu Gai, and seizing Chu's Hanzhong territory. King Huai then mobilized all remaining forces for a deep invasion of Qin, fighting at Lantian. Wei, hearing of this, raided Chu as far as Deng. The Chu troops were panicked and retreated from Qin. Qi, still furious, refused to rescue Chu. Chu was in dire straits.

Later, King Zhao of Qin formed a marriage alliance with Chu and wished to meet King Huai. King Huai intended to go. Qu Ping said: "Qin is a predatory state. It cannot be trusted. Better not to go." King Huai's youngest son Zilan urged the king to go: "How can you cut off Qin's goodwill?" King Huai went. Once inside the Wu Pass, Qin's hidden troops cut off his retreat. They detained King Huai and demanded territory. King Huai was furious and refused. He fled to Zhao, but Zhao would not admit him. He returned to Qin and ultimately died there. His body was sent back to Chu for burial.

King Huai's eldest son, King Qingxiang, was enthroned, and his brother Zilan was made Chief Minister. The people of Chu blamed Zilan for persuading King Huai to enter Qin, from which he never returned.

Though Qu Ping had been exiled, he still looked back toward Chu with longing, his heart bound to King Huai. He never ceased hoping to return, always trusting that the king might awaken and the customs of the state might be reformed. His desire to preserve the king and revive the state — this purpose is expressed three times in a single poem. But in the end there was nothing he could do. He could not return, and at last he saw that King Huai would never come to understanding.

Chief Minister Zilan heard of Qu Yuan's criticisms and was furious. He sent the Grand Officer of the Upper Court to slander Qu Yuan before King Qingxiang. The king was angered and banished him.

Qu Yuan came to the banks of the river, his hair disheveled, chanting as he walked along the marshes. His face was haggard, his body wasted. A fisherman saw him and asked: "Are you not the Grand Officer of the Three Gates? How have you come to this?" Qu Yuan said: "The whole world is murky and I alone am clear; all men are drunk and I alone am sober. That is why I have been cast out." The fisherman said: "The sage does not cling rigidly to things but moves with the times. If the whole world is murky, why not stir up the mud and ride the waves? If all men are drunk, why not eat the dregs and drink the thin wine? Why clutch jade and fine gems to your breast and bring exile upon yourself?" Qu Yuan said: "I have heard that one who has just washed his hair must dust his cap, and one who has just bathed must shake out his garments. How could anyone, with a body so clean, allow himself to be soiled by filthy things? I would rather plunge into the flowing current and be buried in the bellies of river fish, than let my radiant whiteness be stained by the world's grime."

He then clasped a stone to his chest and drowned himself in the Miluo River.

More than a hundred years after Qu Yuan drowned in the Miluo, the Han dynasty had Jia Sheng, who served as Grand Tutor to the Prince of Changsha. Passing the Xiang River, he cast a written eulogy to mourn Qu Yuan.

Jia Sheng's personal name was Yi; he was a man of Luoyang. At eighteen, his ability to recite the Odes and compose prose was known throughout his commandery. The Commandant of Justice, Wu, serving as Governor of Henan, heard of his talent, summoned him to his household, and was deeply fond of him. When Emperor Wen was newly enthroned, hearing that Governor Wu of Henan administered justice as the finest in the realm — and that Wu had once studied under Li Si in their shared hometown — he promoted Wu to Commandant of Justice. The Commandant then recommended Jia Sheng, saying the young man was well versed in the works of the various masters and Hundred Schools. Emperor Wen summoned him and appointed him Academician.

At that time Jia Sheng was just over twenty, the youngest of all. Whenever an edict was issued for deliberation, the senior scholars could not respond, but Jia Sheng answered everything as if reading each man's mind. They all conceded his ability was beyond them. Emperor Wen was pleased and promoted him rapidly — within a year he reached Grand Palace Grandee.

The Emperor then considered appointing Jia Sheng to a ministerial position. But the Marquis of Jiang, Marquis Guan, the Marquis of Dongyang, Feng Jing, and their group were all jealous and slandered him: "This Luoyang fellow is young and barely educated, yet he wants to monopolize power and throw everything into confusion." The Emperor thereafter distanced himself from Jia Sheng, ignored his proposals, and instead appointed him Grand Tutor to the Prince of Changsha.

After about a year, Jia Sheng was summoned for an audience. Emperor Wen had just performed the blessings ritual and was sitting in the Xuanshi Hall. Moved by thoughts about spirits and deities, the Emperor asked about the fundamental nature of ghosts and gods. Jia Sheng expounded the topic in full detail. By midnight, the Emperor had moved to the edge of his seat. When the audience ended, the Emperor said: "I had not seen Jia Sheng in a long time and thought I had surpassed him. Now I see I am not his equal." Shortly after, he appointed Jia Sheng as Grand Tutor to Prince Huai of Liang.

After several years, Prince Huai fell from his horse while riding and died, leaving no heir. Jia Sheng reproached himself for his failure as tutor, wept for over a year, and also died. Jia Sheng was thirty-three at the time of his death.

The Grand Historian remarks: When I read the Li Sao, the Heavenly Questions, the Summoning of the Soul, and the Lament for Ying, I am moved by the author's purpose. When I traveled to Changsha and gazed upon the pool where Qu Yuan drowned himself, I never failed to weep, imagining the man. Then, reading Jia Sheng's eulogy for him, I wondered: with talents like Qu Yuan's, he could have traveled among the feudal lords — what state would not have welcomed him? Why did he bring himself to such a pass? But reading the Rhapsody on the Owl, which equates life and death and treats staying and leaving as matters of indifference, I was overcome and lost in thought.