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Hermits United

Qu Yuan

Poet and statesman during the Warring States

Qu Yuan did for Chinese poetry what Victor Hugo did for French verse: a liberation of metres, an accentuation of feelings, an image of the romantic poet emerging, all this in the fourth century BC. The first great Chinese poet, Qu Yuan wrote of the anguish of exile. As his country was conquered by force, in despair he threw himself into the river. For centuries, people in East Asia have sailed boats on the day of Qu Yuan’s death, to protect his body from being eaten by imaginary dragons. Could there be a more loving way of remembering a poet?

Photo of Qu Yuan