Sao P oe t ry : t He Lyr i cS of c h u 51
You cannot make people see the virtue inside you. 孰云察余之善惡 (shú yún chá yúzhī shàn è)
Most people’s loathings and likings are different, 民好惡其不同兮 (mín hào wù qí bù tóng xi)
270 But these men of factions are not as others are. 惟此黨人其獨異 (wéi cĭ dăng rén qí dú yì)
For they wear mugwort and cram their waistbands with it, 戶服艾以盈要兮 (hù fú ài yĭ yíng yào xi)
But the lovely valley orchids they deem unfit to wear. 謂幽蘭其不可佩 (wèi yōu lán qí bù kĕ pèi)
Since beauty of flower, then, and of shrub escapes them, 覽察草木其猶未得兮 (lăn chá căo mù qí yóu wèi dé xi)
What chance has a rarest jewel of gaining recognition? 豈珵美之能當 (qĭ chéng mĕi zhī néng dāng)
275 They gather up muck to stuff their perfume bags with, 蘇糞壤以充幃兮 (sū fèn răng yĭ chōng wéi xi)
The spicy pepper-plant they say has got no scent at all.” 謂申椒其不芳 (wèi shēn jiāo qí bù fāng)
Master Ling Fen’s oracle essentially repeats what Qu Yuan has been saying all
along—that he possesses outstanding beauty, but this “blinded” world simply fails
to appreciate it. The advice he offers is similar to that given by the woman earlier:
he should not be too stubborn in the pursuit of his ideals, for if he is flexible in
his mind, he will surely find what he wants. This flexible attitude, however, entails
forgoing the poet’s loyalty to his monarch and his attachment to his “old home.” As
we shall see, this is the ultimate sacrifice that the poet is unable to make.
It is noteworthy that Ling Fen’s criticism of the world is presented in floral
images and metaphors similar to those that the poet has used in describing his dif-
ferences from the rest of the world. He and Qu Yuan are nearly of the same mind,
except for their different attitudes regarding one’s relation to the state. This again
helps to emphasize the poet’s outstanding quality and the alienation it causes
him.
In the next section, lines 277–332 (omitted), the poet, although desiring to fol-
low Ling Fen’s words, “faltered and could not make up his mind” (line 277), so
he seeks advice from Wu Xian, the master shaman. Wu Xian’s counsel essentially
echoes that of the others: “As long as your soul within is beautiful, / What need
have you of a matchmaker?” (lines 289–290). Wu Xian’s message is conveyed
through several examples from ancient Chinese history. This combination of sha-
manism and history again blurs the boundary between the two.
The counsels of Ling Fen and Wu Xian cause the poet to contemplate his life.
What follows is a reflective passage that repeats the main themes and motifs intro-
duced earlier: his steadfast pursuit of beauty and virtue and the rifts this pursuit
has caused between him and the world, whose only aim is self-advancement. In
this passage, the poet weaves yet another twist in his floral symbolism. Now, the
beautiful and fragrant flowers are portrayed as undergoing transformations not
from budding to blooming to fading, which would be natural, but from “fragrant
plants” to “worthless mugwort”: “Why have all the fragrant flowers of days gone
by / Now all transformed themselves into worthless mugwort?” (lines 309–310).
It is evident that the poet is speaking metaphorically, and we are thus led to read
this part of the text allegorically. Critics have interpreted this section as the po-
et’s deploring the shameful vacillations of his former comrades in their power
struggles at court. Disillusioned, the poet finally decides to heed the counsels of
Ling Fen and Wu Xian and to “travel around looking both high and low” for the