Xiaoxiang poetry

"Xiaoxiang" refers to the "lakes and rivers" region in south-central China south of the middle-reaches of the Yangtze River and more-or-less corresponding with Hunan province: it is less a precise geographic entity than a concept: The Xiaoxiang region was a typical place of exile for the poet-officials of numerous Chinese dynasties, from the 3rd century BCE, or earlier.

The sense of punishment was a complex of various factors: generally the exiles continued on serving as governmental officials, but receiving a demotion in status and a decrease in salary; the geographic distance and terrain made travel between the Xiaoxiang and the Central Plains regions of China onerous, dangerous and lengthy; the Xiaoxiang exiles were denied direct contact with the sophisticated, urban society of the imperial capital, having to adapt to different customs, dialects, or languages of the region, and for the most part denied direct association with their peers; the climate was hotter and more humid than they were accustomed to, and the fear of associated disease made many of the exiles to the Xiaoxiang area complain about the huge risk to their life and health involved, something which known cases of exiles succumbing to illness shortly after being posted there did little to dispel.

The complaints about the region generally found a balanced tension in the Xiaoxiang poetry with the hopes for a pardon for the crimes for which they had been convicted, or a reprieve of their sentences, and especially for the recall back home.

The Xiaoxiang poetry tradition begins with Qu Yuan, of the Kingdom of Chu, before the initial unification of China into an empire.

The Xiaoxiang poetry tradition begins with the Chuci tradition, which was associated with Qu Yuan's exile, in the centuries before the Common Era, and continued to be developed through the times of the Han dynasty, in the milieu of Han poetry, when the work entitled Chuci was published in what is basically its modern form.

On his way into exile, and upon crossing the Xiang River, Jia Yi wrote a fu named "Lament for Qu Yuan".