The Shaman and the Heresiarch: A New Interpretation of the Li Sao (S U N Y Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)

The __Li sao__ (also known as __Encountering Sorrow__), attributed to the poet-statesman Qu Yuan (4th-3rd century BCE), is one of the cornerstones of the Chinese poetic tradition. It has long been studied as China's first extended allegory in poetic form, yet most scholars agree that there is very little in the two-thousand-year-old tradition of commentary on it that convincingly explains its supernatural flights, its complex floral imagery, or the gender ambiguity of its primary poetic persona. __The Shaman and the Heresiarch__ is the first book-length study of the __Li sao__ in English, offering new translations of both the __Li sao__ and the __Nine Songs__. The book traces the shortcomings of the earliest extant commentary on those texts, that of Wang Yi, back to the quasi-divinatory methods of the highly politicized tradition of Chinese classical hermeneutics in general, and the political machinations of a Han dynasty empress dowager in particular. It also offers an entirely new interpretation of the __Li sao__, one based not on Qu Yuan hagiography but on what late Warring States period artifacts and texts, including recently unearthed texts, teach us about the cultural context that produced the poem. In that light we see in the __Li sao__ not only a reflection of the era of the great classical Chinese philosophers, but also the breakdown of the political-religious order of the ancient state of Chu. Wang Yi And Han Dynasty Classical Commentary -- Wang Yi And The Woman Who Commissioned The Chu Ci Zhangju -- The Intergendered Shaman Of The Li Sao -- The Realm Of Shaman Peng: Floral Imagery In The Li Sao -- The Philosophy Of The Li Sao, Part I -- The Philosophy Of The Li Sao, Part Ii -- Shaman Xian's Domain: The First And Second Journeys -- Conclusion. Gopal Sukhu. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.