Jiu Ge

Authorship and dating

In common with other Chuci works, the authorship of these 11 poems has been attributed to the poet Qu Yuan, who lived over two-thousand years ago. Sinologist David Hawkes finds evidence for this eclectic suite of eleven poems having been written by, "a poet (or poets) at the Chu court in Shou-chun (241-223) B.C."

Text

The "Jiu Ge" songs include eleven (despite the "Nine" in the title). Nine of the verses are addressed to deities, one to the spirits of fallen warriors who died fighting far from home, and the concluding verse. The reason for the discrepancy between the 9 verses referred to in the title and the fact that there are actually 11 is uncertain, although an important question, which has had several possible explanations put forth. Of these explanations, some may be rooted in general Chinese number magic or symbology. More specifically, David Hawkes points out that "nine songs" is referenced in the seminal Chu Ci work, Li Sao, referring to the nine (twice times nine?) dances of Qi of Xia.

Why nine?

Critics and scholars have elaborated various hypotheses as to why the Jiu Ge ("Nine Songs") consists rather of eleven songs. An obvious, and common, suggestion has been that Number 1 and Number 11 songs are somehow to be classified as an introduction and a luan: examination of Song 1 and Song 11 fails to support this convenient conjecture, however. Sinologists Masaru Aoki and David Hawkes propose that for performance purposes there were nine songs/dances performed at each a spring and at an autumn performance, with the spring performance featuring Songs 3 and 5, but not 4 or 6, and the autumnal performance 4 and 6, but not 3 or 5 (with the songs otherwise being performed in numerical order). Another explanation has to do with ancient ideas about numbers and numbering, where by the use of a numeric term, an order of magnitude, estimation, or other symbolic qualities are meant, rather than a specific quanty. 11 songs could be "about 9" songs.

List of contents

The following table shows the eleven individual poems of the Nine Songs. The English translations are following those of David Hawkes, although he uses Roman numerals for the traditional song order.

Illustrated versions

Illustrated versions of the Chuci exist. Below is a selection from the "Nine Songs":

Cast of characters

Of the 11 songs of the "Jiu Ge", 9 are addressed to deities and 1 to the spirits of dead heroes (the last verse section is a conclusional cauda). These deities include He Bo, also known as the River Earl or as the Count of the River, and the Lord (or God) of the Clouds.

Shaman

The shamanic voice is an important part of the proceedings here.

Dong Huang/Jun / Tai Yi

The character with which Song 1 concerns itself is Taiyi (the Grand Unity) and Lord of the East. This is not a very familiar concept from general Chinese culture and history. However the character of this divinity resolves readily as two familiar parts, here coupled together.

Lord of the East

The Lord of the East is the sun, in its aspect as a deity of the morning.

Taiyi

Taiyi also known as: Tai Yi, Great Unity, and so on, is a familiar deity from the Chinese Daoist/shamanic tradition.

God of Clouds

Back in ancient China, people worshiped the God of Clouds (Yunzhong Jun) hoping that there would be rain and nice weather for crops. This poem can be divided into two parts: one part is sung by the person who does the offering and the other part is sung by the person who acts as the God of Clouds in the form of antiphonal singing in order to show their admiration towards God of Clouds. The God of Clouds is sometimes seen as male and sometimes seen as female, but in Chinese literature, the God of Clouds is usually portrayed as female. This poem expresses the characteristics of the God of Clouds, the deep desire that human have towards God, and how God responds to people’s prayer through the antiphonal singing of human and God. This is such a deep emotion that it cannot even be fully conveyed through this poem.

Xiang River Deities

The deities of the Xiang waters, are the Xiangshuishen. Various conceptions of them exist. Of these conceptions, one set consists of ancient folk belief, and another of more modern interpretation.

He Bo: the River Earl

He Bo has been the deity of the Yellow River, one of the worlds major rivers, and one with close association with Chinese Culture. As such, He Bo has been associated with control of that wild river's occasional devastating floods and general qualities as an agricultural aquifer.

Master of Fate

The Master of Fate is known as Siming (司命) with various English translations (such as, Controller of Fate, Deified Judge of Life, and Director of Destinies). Siming is both an abstract deity (or more rather title thereof) and a celestial asterism. In the Daoist case of the Three Worms, Siming, as Director of Destinies, has the bureaucratic function of human lifespan allocation. As an asterism, or apparent stellar constellation, Siming is associated both with the Wenchang Wang star pattern, near the Big Dipper, in (Aquarius (Chinese astronomy)), and with a supposed celestial bureaucrat official of fate.

Earthly Siming

The earthly Siming has the bureaucratic function of human lifespan allocation.

Astronomical Siming

The astronomical Siming (actually part of asterism 虛, "Emptiness") consists of the Deified Judge of Life star group. Sīmìngyī: (24 Aquarii, 司命一) and Sīmìngèr (26 Aquarii, 司命二).

Shan Gui

Shan Gui is a Mountain Spirit.

Spirits of the Fallen and the Dead

Presupposing some sort of continuation of life after death: ghosts or spirits.

Translations

The first translation of the Nine Songs into a European language was done by the Viennese scholar August Pfizmaier (1808-1887). Over 100 years later Arthur Waley (1889-1966) accredited it as "an extremely good piece of work, if one considers the time when it was made and the meagreness of the material to which Pfizmaier had access."