“Roaming the Infinite”: Liu Xiang as Chuci Scholar and Would-be Transcendent

Abstract

In the Han dynasty there were numerous imitations of Qu Yuan’s 屈原 “Li sao” 離騷, many of which did not emphasize his political stance, biography, or suicide, but rather praised him as an explorer of the divine who had attained at least a symbolic kind of immortality. Using the “Fisherman” 漁父 and “Far Roaming” 遠遊 to sketch the early elaboration of these themes, this article then proceeds to examine the complex response to Qu Yuan’s legacy in the writings of Liu Xiang 劉向. Liu was one of the key scholars and transmitters of Qu Yuan’s work in the Han, but he also wrote a rarely-studied set of “Nine Threnodies” 九歎, which present a distinctive interpretation of Qu Yuan and the “Li sao.” Apart from more familiar themes, these poems follow the “Far Roaming” in concluding with a Daoist apotheosis, departing from the troubled sphere of contemporary politics to join the immortal sages of the past. Moreover, this interpretation has a textual basis, since the term “Peng Xian” in the “Li sao” does not necessarily refer to a political figure, but may instead represent a divine figure who attained transcendence through aquatic immersion.