Popular Chinese Stories 中国传统故事 英文版.doc

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1、Popular Chinese StoriesThe Death of Q Yun 屈原On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the day of the dragon boat festival (Dunw ji 端午节), people eat zngzi 粽子 (although people also eat them at other times, since they are delicious).The association of zngzi with this occasion is said to be in memory o

2、f the poet Q Yun 屈原, an official of the state of Ch 楚 during the Warring States Period (period 04e, 200s and 300s BC). The famous warring states included Yn 燕, Q 齐, Zho 赵, Wi 魏, Hn 韩, Ch 楚, And Qn 秦, as well as the diminutive Wi 卫, Dngzhu 东周, Sng 宋, and L 鲁 (where Confucius lived). Among all these,

3、the state of Qn was by far the most powerful and sought to dominate or absorb the others. (Eventually it succeeded. Thats where the Qn dynasty came from.)Q Yun was a scion of an aristocratic family and a trusted counselor at the court of king Hui, 怀), where he was an advocate of close alliances with

4、 the other states in the hope of frustrating Qns expansionist ambitions. But he was hated by an envious competitor for the kings attention. In the late 280s BC the state of Qn 秦 broke its alliance with Ch, and many battles ensued. eventually Qn suggested that the Ch monarch go to Qn for peace talks.

5、 Q Yun counseled against doing so, for he did not trust Qn. But king Huis son Qng Xing 楚顷襄 argued in favor of the trip, and king Hui went.As Q Yun had predicted, king Hui was arrested, held in exile in Qn for three years, and finally executed. Meanwhile his son Qng Xing became monarch, and selected

6、Q Yuns old enemy as his prime minister, who immediately persuaded him to have Q Yun banished. He moved to his old home in what is today northern Hbi 湖北 and spent his time collecting folklore and writing poetry.In 278 BC Qn forces, under the command of the famous general BI Q 白起, occupied Yng 郢, the

7、Ch capital (in modern Jinglng county 江陵县 in Hbi).Q Yun was in despair both at the injustice of his exile and at the loss of his homeland to the Qn conquerors because his advice had not been followed. He commemorated his sorrow in a long poem still widely respected, called Leaving the Tumult or “The

8、Sorrow of Leaving” (Lso 离骚) (usually translated “Encountering Sorrow”) and in many other melancholy poems, often including the word lament (i 哀) in the title, such as Lament for the Fall of Yng (i Yng 哀郢).Eventually on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, overcome by his depression, Q Yun committ

9、ed suicide by jumping into the nearby Mlu river 汨罗江.People were unable to find his body, and made sacrifices to his spirit by throwing rice into the river. Later, fearing that the rice would be too readily eaten by fish, they tied the rice into wrappings of bamboo leaves. (Other accounts say that th

10、e wrapped rice was thrown in to feed the fish and thus prevent them from eating Q Yuns body.)Although people do not throw rice into rivers any more, the custom of preparing and eating rice wrapped in bamboo leaves (zngzi 粽子) is still associated with the fifth day of the fifth month.2 子 ( . , . 江汨 , )哀 , , ) )骚 ( “ ) 县 ( 郢 起 湖 . , , , 楚 , . 秦 . ), . . ( , ) 鲁 , 周 楚韩 , .)0 ) (子 ,端 屈