Author of Li Sao, forefather of Chinese romantic poetry
A poet of the state of Chu in the Warring States period, the first great poet in Chinese literary history to leave his name. Loyal to Chu yet repeatedly slandered and exiled, in his wanderings he wrote the long poem Li Sao — likening himself to fragrant herbs and fair women to pour out a loyalty misunderstood and a ceaseless searching. On learning that the Chu capital had fallen, he is said to have drowned himself in the Miluo River; the people rowed boats to search and cast rice dumplings into the water, and the Dragon Boat Festival was born. The "Chu Ci" he founded, gorgeous and strange, is the source of Chinese romantic poetry.
The exiled Qu Yuan said by the river: "The whole world is muddy, I alone am clear; all men are drunk, I alone am awake." A fisherman urged him to drift with the tide, but he would rather die. In the end he embraced a stone and sank, keeping his purity through death. For more than two thousand years, at each Dragon Boat Festival people still honor with dumplings and dragon boats this poet who would not join a muddy world.
Whether certain pieces of the Chu Ci are truly Qu Yuan’s is debated, and the link of his drowning to the Dragon Boat Festival has a legendary element; this site states the common account and its legendary nature.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.