Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2018

 

Integration and Innovation in Ancient Tribal Culture and the Formation of the Nine Songs

 (Abstract)

 

Jiang Linchang

 

The traditional understanding that the Nine Songs (Jiuge九歌) were composed by Qu Yuan on the basis of sacrificial folk music is not telling the whole story. The Nine Songs comprise the shao music of the Dongyi people in the Haidai region from the age of Yu Shun; the qiuge of the Huaxia people in the Central Plains during the days of the great Yu and Qi; the sacrificial songs of vassal states in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods; and popular sacrificial music from the Chu mountains. The ancient sacrificial songs of different regions and tribes were originally disseminated through kinship groups from generation to generation in remote antiquity. They only spread beyond the tribe through contacts occurring when kinship organization collapsed, to be replaced by geopolitical organization. The particular historical origin of Chu state and King Huai of Chu’s ambition to unify the whole country under his rule; the period in which Qu Yuan lived; and his role as a Wushi (巫史) or shaman were all factors that enabled him to compose and polish the Nine Songs. Their value lies in the fact that they not only inherit and integrate ancient tribal culture but also represent the acme of the Chinese nation’s classical literature, whence their enduring influence over more than two thousand years of traditional Chinese culture.