StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
"Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu" paper focuses on the poem, “Encountering Sorrow”, that encapsulates a ritual formula of an all-too-brief or unsuccessful meeting with the divine being is later self-consciously invoked for allegorical purposes to express other kinds of longing and fulfillment…
Download free paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER99% of users find it useful
Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu"

LISAO OF THE LYRICS OF CHU The poem, "Encountering Sorrow Lisao encapsulates a ritual formula of an all-too-brief or unsuccessful meeting with the divine being is later self-consciously invoked for allegorical purposes to express other kinds of longing and unfulfillment.(David Schulman and Guy Stroumsa 36). There are about 372 lines, 2400 words, and they are divided into 15 sections. The lyrical expression of emotion in Lisao shows its allegorical meaning. The poem is a literary representative of Qu Yuan's high moral conduct and patriotism. The poem also expresses his strong love for the state and its future. It has a lofty ideal and contains his determination to fight for its realization. His poem aims to discuss the various historical themes combined with legends and myths. (Stephen Owen). In terms of form, the Lisao is a first person monologue which is rich in imagery and skillful metaphor. The Lisao is a long lyrical poem permeated with romanticism and moving fairy tales. Lisao deals with calumny and slander of a sordid political reality, and the more general burden of the constraints of human existence, prompt the poet to undertake an "upward journey" (shangzheng). In Lisao, the enactment of other realms is self-conscious, almost self-reflexive: it is an extension of the poet's "declaration of intent." Summoned through an act of sheer will, the other world can be a precarious illusion-hence the poet's disappointments, doubts, and hesitations during his aerial journeys in "Encountering Sorrow."(David Schulman and Guy Stroumsa 37). In terms of content, the poem deals with search, sorrow and disappointments of an exiled prince. The poem also represents stages in Quan's life. It also laments his misfortunes and declares his virtue. In this poem, Qu Yuan attacks those who have defamed him and goes on a cosmic quest for a worthy lord. Moreover, the Lisao counterchange at poetic peaks; chiastic rhetoric highlights and fulfills central cultural and literary values. It shows the reciprocal relations between lord-vassal, heaven-human. Reciprocity pervades and underpins so ourselves to illuminating the dual nature of Chinese songs: requital and retribution. Qu Yuan's life reveals the paradigmatic of the double-edged relation of the Confucian intellectual to the structures of state power. 1 He is part of China's tradition literary martyrdom. To claim to be witness to a higher moral truth while remaining subject to those holding absolute power, is the kind of situation particularly conducive to producing martyrs. Chiastic genealogy marks Qu Yuan as a noble hero of a poem that will repeatedly counterbalance misunderstood nobility against blind depravity. "Encountering Sorrow" deploys counterchange distinctively; throughout, Qu Yuan consistently uses chiasmus not to bind together and suggest but to deny it and enforce separation. He laments that none at court can appreciate true nobility, usually metaphorized as "beauty" or fragrance, as in this upside-down counterchange (36): They gather dung and muck to stuff their sachets; Claim ginger and pepper have no fragrance! Jiu Ge ("Nine Songs"), also attributed to Qu Yuan, is the first example of what could be called shamanic literature in China. Qu Yuan fights against olfactory oppression by marshalling a shaman's arts and lore to undertake a magic itinerary seeking divine powers, divine aid, divine love. His "shaman's way" metaphor enlivens Lisao, e.g. at 16: Regretting I had scanned my path inexactly, After long pause I turned about. I turned my chariot round to retrace the road, Before my path had strayed too far." Here a transition from direct lament to metaphoric presentation spins another binding thread; not only do "not deep" and "shallow" form a frame for quickly and rapids, they sound similar: dzivm and tsien (tsien). Our shamanic poet then continues with a metaphor that inverts things from their proper places (62): I've tried to pluck creeping ficus in the waters, Pick lotus-blossoms in the treetops. The poet laments looking for love in the wrong places; associations evoked by clinging creepers and "love". (Chinese "lotus" sounded like "love"-both lian) strengthen counterchange's emotional effect. The Lisao is part of the Chuci (literally, "words of Chu") tradition, a diverse corpus dominated by the quest for and encounter with deities, visions of other worlds, aerial journeys, transformations, and transcendence of mundane reality on the one hand, and lament over political disappointments, exile, persecution, misunderstanding, and mortality on the other. These two dimensions are inextricably linked. Visions of other worlds may allegorize political aspirations. Fickle deities shade into undiscerning rulers; both inspire a rhetoric of despair and plaint.(David Schulman and Guy Stroumsa 35). In his long narrative poem Lisao (Encountering Sorrow), the theme is expressed through a journey motif, during which the poet-subject moves toward a magical, supernatural realm while in quest of an ideal mate. But the journey ends in failure and despair, implying that he is an immortal exiled into an unworthy world. As Sima Qian put it in his biography of the poet some three centuries later, "It was the sense of wrong (yuan) that inspired Qu Yuan's composition of the Lisao." 2 In pointing out that historical examples are given in the poem "in order to criticize [or satirize] (ci) contemporary affairs (shi shi)," Sima Qian is, of course, referring to his own parallel practice of seeing the situation of the present self mirrored in the models of the past. The emotional affinity he felt with Qu Yuan is expressed in the "Historian's Comment" that follows the biography, in which he describes his tears both in reading the Lisao and when traveling to where the poet drowned himself. It is shown in the Lisao, that the poet at times adopts a female voice in lamenting the separation from his ruler or expressing his longing for recognition. The tradition of female impersonation was established early in the Shijing (The Book of Songs), most often in poems expressing the sorrow and longing of a neglected or abandoned woman. In twentieth-century literature, the figure of Qu Yuan remains an abiding presence 3 most particularly he has appeared and reappeared in various guises as allegories of the tortuous relationship between Chinese intellectuals and the state, of the struggle of moral integrity against official power. Qu Yuan's recurrent motifs unite his supposed biography and the poetry attributed to him: fervent and uncompromising political idealism, longing for escape, loyal counsel unheeded, experiences of being maligned and misunderstood, exile, despair, suicide. The problem of interpretation begins with journeys to other worlds inhabited by hosts of divine beings and the poet's self-representation of his own powers and frustrations in these realms. It is almost impossible to draw the line between the magical-religious dimension and possible political-allegorical significance, especially since so little is actually known about the religions of Chu culture. The poet laments looking for love in the wrong places; associations evoked by clinging creepers and "love". Our speaker laments looking for love in the wrong places; associations evoked by clinging creepers and "love blossoms" (Chinese "lotus" sounded like "love"-both lian) strengthen counterchange's emotional effect. Qu Yuan is known as the Chinese poet and loyal minister of King Chu who wrote the 374 lines of the Lisao when he was rewarded with slander and banishment. He ultimately drowned himself in the Miluo River. (Peter Lee, 15). It is the figure of Qu Yuan, one of the names on Sima Qian's list and China's first named poet that has been most frequently celebrated as the writer/martyr par excellence. The poetry attributed to him and supposedly produced when he was wandering in exile after his banishment from the court of King Huai of Chu (r. 328-299 B.C.), contains the self-portrait of a loyal, upright, high-minded official who has remained steadfast to his ideals, refusing to compromise even when suffering persecution. 4 WORKS CITED PAGE Feuerwerker, Yi Tsi Mei. Ideology, Power, Text: Self-Representation and the Peasant "Other" in Modern Chinese Literature. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998. Hawkes David. Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. Lee, Peter H. A History of Korean Literature. Cambridge, England. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, 2003. Owen Stephen. An Anthology of Chinese Literature. New York: Norton, 1996. Shulman, David and Guy G. Stroumsa. Self and Self-Transformation in the History of Religions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Wedell-Wedellsborg Anne. "Chinese Modernism" In Cologne Workshop 1984 on Contemporary Chinese Literature, 96-126. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words, n.d.)
Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words. https://studentshare.org/literature/1500576-lisao-of-the-lyrics-of-chu
(Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)
Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words. https://studentshare.org/literature/1500576-lisao-of-the-lyrics-of-chu.
“Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”. https://studentshare.org/literature/1500576-lisao-of-the-lyrics-of-chu.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Lisao of the Lyrics of Chu

Analysis of Music and Lyrics

Introduction – Analysis of Music and lyrics This song is about Mammy Jinny turning Eighty Two and all the close acquaintances, friends and family coming down to Mammy Jinny's place to celebrate and greet her on her birthday.... It revolves around the jolly mood of the day and tells about merry making, singing and dancing....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Lyric Explication - Patsy Cline

As she listened to the lyrics, Patsy was emotionally motivated by the power of the lyrics.... She was sure about the quality of the lyrics and decided to approach it seriously.... As she listened to the lyrics, Patsy was emotionally motivated by the power of the lyrics.... She was sure about the quality of the lyrics and decided to approach it seriously.... Lyric Explication of "She's Got You" - Patsy Cline One of the most famous pop lyrics, "She's Got You" by Hank Cochran has been very strong in presenting the memory of a lost love....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Perspective of song lyrics and poems

If the lyrics are structured correctly, music can be invented just by the way the lyrics flow.... People can express themselves in poetry and lyrics in ways they could not do in regular prose and writing, and it allows them the utmost freedom of expression.... Song lyrics are dictated by the direction the music has taken with the melody.... lyrics often take on a life of their own musically” (http://www.... There are also many similarities between poems and song lyrics....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Get Over It by Eagles

ibliography:"Eagles - Get Over It lyrics.... lyrics.... Dirty Laundry lyrics - Don Henley.... lyrics, Song lyrics – LyricsFreak.... BRAD PAISLEY lyrics - Online.... A-Z lyrics Universe....
1 Pages (250 words) Term Paper

Poetry interpretation

The poet of lyrics is not interested in scientific research, but search of the inner world.... lyrics are basically meant to be sung whereas the poem is for reading.... “With all that said, lyrics and poems share a lot in terms of composition and form.... BandAMP: Lesson 18: Intro to lyrics and Poetry; Aug 4, 2010 Accessed on February 2, 2014‎...
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Authentic Black English in White Rappers Lyrics

Rap is an art articulated through the articulation of rhyming words rooted with deeper meanings within the lyrics.... Producing rhyming lyrics with influential messages is a difficult task to come up with.... On the other hand, of this argument, are people supports to measure their fixed criteria of white American cultural norms?...
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

Music without Lyrics

From the paper "Music without lyrics" it is clear that listening attentively to music without lyrics is valuable.... The rhythm and contour of the melody played without lyrics are timeless.... Paper is intended to describe the emotions I felt while listening to music without lyrics, in addition, answer the question 'How does music manage to trigger a delicate yet powerful feeling?... nitially, when I started attending the class where music without lyrics was played, I found the music not enjoyable at all....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

How Music Has Evolved over the Decades

"How Music Has Evolved over the Decades" paper discusses the evolution of music throughout several decades beginning of the 1960s.... Moreover, the paper seeks to analyze the potential influence of society on music as well as its impact on the lives of people.... hellip; The topic is of interest because of an exhibited passion for music from different decades and the conviction that the society presents the impact of different types of music....
5 Pages (1250 words) Coursework
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us