(National 3A-class) Quyuan, with birth name of Quping and alias of Zhengze, was born in Lepingli of Zigui County, 340 BC. Quyuan lived in the Warring States Period (403-220 BC), when China was controlled by 7 states named separately the Qi, the Chu, the Yan, the Zhao, the Wei and the Qin. Among them, the Qin Sate was the most powerful one, the Qi State was the most prosperous one, and the Chu is the largest one. In fact, the Qi Sate was becoming weak day by day. So, only two states were able to control the whole China, they were the Qin State, and the Chu State. At that time, the family name Qu, Zhao and Jing stood lordship of the Chu State. As a peer generation, Quyuan had a lot chances to get good education and work for the Palace. Of great learning and ability, Quyuan was promoted as the Premier to assist the Emperor when he was 20. He was responsible for drafting laws, receiving emissaries, dealing with the foreign affairs, and controlling the peer officials with family name of “Qu, Zhao and Jing”. With great ambition, Quyuan started his political life successfully. Soon later, the Chu State was sucking in the war against the Qin State. There occurred two voices about this war, one stood for surrender, led by the Prince; and the other stood for fight, led by Quyuan. Under the support of the Emperor and based on the reality, Quyuan reformed the politics and laws, and also promoted a lot capable person, which all greatly limited the peer officials’ power. So they made up kinds of calumny at the front of the Emperor. Unfortunately, the Emperor took the calumny as true, and dismissed Quyuan from politics. And about the 304BC, he was forced to leave the capital, which is now Jiangling in Hubei Province. 6 years later, by a sudden whim of the Emperor, Quyuan was promoted as official in Palace again. However, the Chu State was becoming weaker and weaker, after the Emperor died, Quyuan was dismissed again. And he was banished in where now is Yuanxiang in Hunan Province. During this period, he worked out famous poem, such as “Jiu Ge”, “Li Sao” and “Tian Wen” etc. In the year of 278 BC, when Qin army broke the capital of Chu, Quyuan gave himself up in the Guluo River. His whole life was full of patriotism, full of loyalty and full of truth seeking. Just as what he said in “Li Sao”, “I’m willing to devoting everything to this country, including my life”. Thought Quyuan has been away almost 2284 years, his patriotism and famous poem were handed down generation by generation. For memory and reverence, people built the Quyuan Memorial Temple. The Quyuan Memorial Temple has been listed into national 3A class tour sites and key Provincial Protected Historical and Cultural Sites. And now, we are at the front of the gate. Those three big Chinese characters, meaning “Quyuan Memorial Temple”, were inscribed by famous scholar, Guo Moruo. In China history, memorial temple is always built for ancestors. So we can see that, the people here have treated this great patriot as their ancestor. The first Quyuan Memorial Temple was built in 820 by Wang Maoyuan, the prefectural governor of Guizhou. And later, the citizen of Guizhou collected money, and built another memorial temple in Quyuan Tuo, a beach between Zigui and Xiangxi River. Through the past dynasties, the name had been changed for several times. And since the found of People’s Republic of China, the temple was repaired twice. Later, because of the construction of Gezhouba Project, the Quyuan Memorial Temple was relocated at the present place in June of 1976. And the main construction started in February of 1977, and completed in June of 1982. The size is as 4 times as the former one. The gate remains the style as it was in the Song Dynasty. And its decorated archway is 17m in height, and 18 in width. And the east and west wing-rooms are extended 7 m. The wing-rooms and gate are forming a Chinese character “山”, which means the mountain. Wing-rooms are prepared for tourist to have a break, where you can enjoy tea or leave word. Entering the gate, we will pass by a great lawn. Those two Chinese characters formed by grass means “Seek”, which was picked out from his poem. The whole sentence is, “life is a long way, and I have a lot to seek”, which is a depiction of his whole life. As we said before, his whole life was full of patriotism, full of loyalty and full of truth seeking. There’s a special mark beside the two characters. That is the water level 175m mark. What does it mean? In 2009, the water level reserved by Three Gorges Project will go equal with this mark, which means the temple will be submerged at that time. So then, the Quyuan Memorial Temple will have to be relocated again. Look at this bronze statue on the granitic base. It’s the statue of Quyuan. Its height is 3.92 m, and weight is 3 ton, while the height of base is 2.5m. As one of the largest bronze statues of China, it was designed by Hubei Art Institute and casted in Wuhuan Casting Heat Treatment Main Plant in 1985. The appearance of statue is like “bow his head in thinking, while walking slowly against the wind”, which shows Quyuan’s characteristics of hot-blooded, proud and aloof. So, here is the best place of photography. Several national and party leaders have taken picture at front of this bronze statue, such as Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Wu Bangguo, Li Ruihuan, Wu Yi and Li Tieying etc. At the west side of the statue, there is the stele and inscription. At the left, these is praise poem for Quyuan written by famous literati of past dynasties, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Lu You, Su Shi and Wen Tianxiang etc; and at the right, these are Quyuan’ famous poems of his life, including, “Li Sao”, “Tian Wen”, “Jiu Zhang” and “Jiu Ge” etc. And now, we are at the front of the “Quyuan Memorial”. Those 5 characters, meaning the “Quyuan Memorial”, were inscribed by famous scholar, Guo Moruo. It’s said that, Mr Guo Moruo went off only 3 month after he inscribed these words. So, these are the last words written before his death. This is a big picture of Quyuan, which was drawn at the construction time by Yang Chu, the Director of Hubei Yidu Museum. The words at two sides are praise comments for Quyuan, which both were written by Guo Moruo. Now let’s look at the left, it means, “during the process of learning ancient culture, Chairman Mao Zedong insists that we pick up the prime and abandon the draff. The story of Quyuan and his works are democratic prime of the ancient culture. Over 2000 years, it’s not occasional for Chinese people to pay respects to him.” Now turn to the right side, it means, “Quyuan was a great patriotism poet. He loved the Chu State, as well as the whole China. He loved the people, and combined their fate together. So he will always be respected by both Chinese and world people. And his poem, full of life and people, has been handled through out the world, and later handed down generation by generation.” Now let’s go to the exhibition tables. These relics are of the same age as Quyuan. First, we go the right side. This strange animal statue is a funerary object, named grave guarder. It’s said that, this animal guarder would protect the dead away from evil and ghost. Look at the tall and thin puppet. Do you think it is a female or male? It’s a man. At that time, the Emperor loved tall and thin girls. In order to fawn on the Emperor, lots of men also tried to keep thin. And the arrow and living tools were unearthed in Jinzhou. Of course, they are fake relics, because the real ones have been protected. Ok, let’s go to the left exhibition tables. Look this largest one. It is an ancient music instrument, Drum with phoenix frame and tiger base. The Chu people adored phoenix, while the Ba people adored tiger. So, the drum approved that the Ba and Chu cultures were integrated thousands of years ago. And this is the twenty-five-stringed plucked instrument, somewhat similar to the zither. And those are bamboo slips for writing on at that time, and writing case. This Quyuan painting is the oldest among the existing ones. It was drawn by an artist of Yuan Dynasty. In this painting, Quyuan is thin with beautiful bead. What was the true appearance of Quyuan? There’s no record for textual research. And this image was also imagined by author. This is the description of Quyuan’s whole life, written by Sima Qian. It’s the earliest book record for Quyuan. It says, “Quyuan, with born name as Ping and lordship name of Qu, used to the Premier to assist the Emperor of Chu. Of great ability and born in a warring period, he could negotiate the national affairs at the court and work out laws or regulations; externally, he had the ability to deal with foreign affairs among the feudal princes…” This record highly praised Quyuan for his strong ability and high sentiment. Later, we will view the hometown of Quyuan, the Lepingli, where is full of beautiful mountains and rivers. Because of Quyuan, this place had attracted thousands of literati and poets to come here in a continuous stream. Even nowadays, there are still some historic sites about Quyuan, such as the Quyuan Temple, the Censor for Base of Quyuan’s house, the Dushu (reading) Cave, the Zhaomian Well, the Yumi Sanqiu, the Drum Hitting Platform, and the Magic Bull etc. There is a legend for every site. This 103 cm statue is the oldest among the existing ones. And please recall those statues we have seen moment ago. Have you found any differences? Yes, this one is much fatter, which is the typical appearance of ancient monarch. And it is an unearthed relic, with story carved as inscription on the base. In 1537, Cao Ruifu, a trader from Sichuan, passed by Baigou Gorge with 5 family in one boat. Then there occurred a strong wind, turning over the boat. The boat was sunk into the river, while 6 people were survived safe and sound. They were confused, and asked the local villagers for advice. Local villagers told them that, after Quyuan went off in the river, a magic fish took his body back to here, which made Quyuan’s soul remain in his hometown; so their survival must be help from Quyuan’s soul. As a return, Cao Ruifu asked an artificer to build a statue. And Chen Bofu, that artificer, worked out this statue. Since nobody at that time had seen Quyuan before, he made the statue of a monarch appearance. From here we can see that, Quyuan had been a local god to relieve people of their distress and protect them. In addition to great politician and ideologist, Quyuan was also a well-known poet. His works, such as “Li Sao”, “Tian Wen”, “Jiu Ge” and “Jiu Zhang” have been great treasure in Chinese literary history. He started a literary form, named as “Chu Chi” (Songs of Chu). “Chu Chi” and “Shi Jing” (Classic of Poem) were promoted as two literary excellences, which both had profound effects on later poem and odes. Li Bai, a famous poet of Tang Dynasty, praised that “the great of Quyuan’s works can match the great of the Sun and the Moon”; Lu Xun praised Quyuan as “his great style started a new literary history”; Liang Qichao praised Quyuan as “the ancestor of the Chinese literati”; Wen Yiduo praised Quyuan as “the only one can be renowned as the poet of people in Chinese history”; the Encyclopedia of China recorded Quyuan as “the founder of Chinese romanticism literature”. In the year of 1953, the World Peace Council appealed to world people to remember for great literati of world, they were: Quyuan from China, Nicolaus Copernicus from Poland, Francois Rableais from France and Jose San Mati from Cuba. Thousands of years, for respect and memory, people defined May 5 of lunar year as the Memorial Day for Quyuan, also called the dragon boat festival. Every year, people will hold several ceremonies for memory, such as dragon boat race, poetry meeting, cook glutinous rice dumpling and etc. In 1972, the prime minister of Japan called on China on invitation from Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. And Chairman Mao presented him a variorum edition of Songs of Chu for memory on his departure. Though Quyuan has been away almost 2284 years, his patriotism and famous poem were handed down generation by generation through out China, even through the whole world. The last place we’ll visit in this memorial temple is the Grave of Quyuan. Although there were only his personal effects left, people buried them in the best rosewood coffin, which could only be applied for Emperors.