Chu Ci, also known as the Songs of Chu, was the first romantic poetry collection in the history of Chinese literature. The book is mainly based on Qu Yuan’s works, and it also includes poems from other poets in Qu’s style.

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Chu Ci, translated as Songs of Chu, is an anthology of Chinese poetry attributed mainly to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States period (475-221 BC). This valuable piece of traditional Chinese heritage spread to the Korean Peninsula, Japan and Vietnam in ancient times.

Currently, efforts have been made to collect, compile and research documents that were created in regard to the Songs of Chu, in an effort to examine the ways in which traditional Chinese classics were disseminated to other countries. These projects aim to help spread China’s academic and cultural influence around the world.

 

Cultural exchanges
The crucial project, funded by China’s National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science, has extended its research to East Asia in order to focus on the area that has been culturally influenced by the Songs of Chu. The project is making use of new methodologies and research patterns with a focus on excavation, compilation and studies on Chu Ci documents which existed in such countries as DPRK, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

The project aims to publish a comprehensive table of contents, periodicals of selected documents, research treasury and collections. A database of the Songs of Chu and its applied studies are also on the agenda.

The project will provide a higher-profile academic platform for Chu Ci studies, helping to seek and honor excellent traditional Chinese culture as well as new strategies for cultural exchanges, said Zhou Jianzhong, chief expert of the project and former vice president of Nantong University.

Overseas documents relating to the Songs of Chu not only broaden the scope of the research but also serve as scholarly information for Chinese academia to start new research fields regarding the poetry anthology, said Fang Ming, president of the Academy of Studies on Qu Yuan.

 

Chu Ci database
The project has already made preliminary achievements. The secretary of chief expert Chen Liang explained that researchers have investigated nearly a thousand libraries in East Asia and completed a distribution map of Chu Ci documents through statistical analysis so they can photograph and photocopy rare documents of importance. They also ask staff of foreign libraries to help purchase books, print theses and to share digital material.

Regarding the research on the documents that existed in East Asia, project members conducted studies based on newly discovered information and published more than 60 theses, and books like Studies on Chu Ci Documents that Existed in South Korea and Studies on the Chu Ci Masters of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties as well as four volumes of Chu Ci Studies in China.

The project also launched a database of Chu Ci documents that existed in East Asia. The database is a digitized multifunctional research platform, storing 847 research books on Chu Ci and 14,000 theses about Chu Ci as well as 800 items of relevant pictures, audio records and videos.

The database has finished digitizing Chu Ci documents and expressions written in Chinese. At the next stage, the focus will be establishing a semantics-based intelligent search system of Chu Ci documents, said Qian Zhiyong, a researcher in charge.

 

Historical studies
The project suggests that the compilation work should parallel relevant studies. Chen argued that the project has entered a crucial stage in which researchers will continue to collect and compile Chu Ci documents that existed in East Asia in a bid to publish a book list while analyzing Chinese-written Chu Ci criticisms and theses that existed in the area, with the goal of completing the Compilation of Chu Ci Criticisms in Japan and other countries.

Also, researchers will study the dissemination of the Songs of Chu in East Asia and its effects in the area, thus writing a book collection about this topic, Chen added.

Zhou said that the work should reduce the number of research topics and choose instead to emphasize how Chu Ci was disseminated in East Asia and affected the region, because “there are too many issues available for research as we conduct the project.”

In addition, Chu Ci studies require optimization of the database by dealing with multilingual compatibility and developing punctuation and annotation systems.

The project researchers are writing a book named Semantic Knowledge Organization of Chu Ci Documents to share their theories and empirical experience with academia. The book touches upon theories and technological application of document digitization and the semantic knowledge organization of the poetry anthology.

 

Wu Nan is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.