The Chu Bamboo Slips of the Warring States Collected by the Shanghai Museum (Vol. 8) includes a Chu Ci (楚辭)-like work, “Ode to the Phoenix Tree.” This poem is extremely important for researchers. One of the previous editors and compilers has endeavored to solve many philological problems. However, some of the critical sentences have been misinterpreted. Thus, he erroneously titled the poem “Ode to the Plum.” There are also a number of misinterpretations of key terms. Researchers from a joint research project between Fudan and Jilin Universities and other scholars have also done some work on this, but some key issues are still left unresolved. In this paper, the title has been corrected to “Ode to the Phoenix Tree.” Moreover, in analyzing the texts, I have reinterpreted the following phrases: guanshu (官樹), ang-qi-buhuan (昂其不還), shenli-jianshu (深戾堅豎), jin-huisun-xi (寖毀損兮), sufu-gongli (素府宮李). Given the significance of this pre-Qin Chu ode, it is worthwhile for literary researchers to give it appropriate attention.
“Ode to the Plum,” “Ode to the Phoenix Tree,” tong coffin, ang, sun
Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.
