Yu Fu

Qu Yuan conversing with fisherman.

"Yu Fu" or "The Fisherman" (traditional Chinese: 漁父; simplified Chinese: 渔父; pinyin: yú fù; literally: "fisherman") is a short work anthologized in the Chu Ci (楚辭 Songs of Chu, sometimes called The Songs of the South. Traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan, there is little likelihood that he is the actual author (Hawks 2011 [1985]: 203). Rather, "Yu fu" is a biographical or pseudobiographical account of an incident in poet and scholar Qu Yuan's life. It is mostly in prose, but with a short, incidental verse known as "the fisherman's song". This song, and the accompanying prose description of Qu Yuan's encounter with a fisherman during his exile are well known in Classical Chinese literature. Furthermore, "Yu fu" represents a common motif: the story of the encounter between a scholar and a fisherman also appears in the Zhuangzi, chapter 31, as an encounter between Confucius and a fisherman. There are a number of other Daoist parables of a similar nature; and, the fisherman's song itself appears in identical form in the Mencius, but there put into the mouth of a child, instead of an old fisherman. (Hawks 2011 [1985]: 204 and 207)

References

Hawkes, David, translator and introduction (2011 [1985]). Qu Yuan et al., The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology of Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-044375-2

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Yu Fu

Chinese poetry

Major eras	Classical Chinese poetry Modern Chinese poetry

Poetry by dynasty	Han poetry Jian'an poetry Six Dynasties poetry Tang poetry Song poetry Yuan poetry Ming poetry Qing poetry

Poetry works and collections	Classic of Poetry Chu Ci New Songs from the Jade Terrace Nineteen Old Poems Quan Tangshi Three Hundred Tang Poems Wangchuan ji Wen Xuan Zhuying ji

Major forms	ci fu shi qu yuefu

Individual poems list	Chinese poems (category list) List of poems (article)

Modern compilations	Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature

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Yu Fu

See also

References