Nine Changes
"Nine Changes," also known as "Nine Variations," "Chiu pien" or "Jiu Bian" (traditional Chinese: 九辯; simplified Chinese: 九辩; pinyin: Jiǔ biàn) is one of the 17 poems in the ancient Chinese poetry collection Chu ci, also known as The Songs of the South, or The Verses of Chu. Along with Shi Jing, Chu ci is one of the two essential Classical Chinese anthologies of poetry. The authorship, date, division, title significance, and composition intention of "Nine Changes" are controversial. However, it is still vital in the development process of Chinese poetry. As a poem in Chu ci, "Nine Changes" is written in a new style: "Sao Style," which allows each line to contain a good deal of narrative. Moreover, starting from "Nine Changes," "be grieved by autumn" (悲秋) has been a motif of traditional Chinese literature. Authorship Song Yu is a purported author of the "Nine Changes." He was a supposedly 3rd century B.C. disciple of a 4th century B.C. poet called Qu Yuan at the Chu court. A 2nd century A.D. compiler Wang Yi, who collected all poems and compiled this anthology, first attributed the poem to Song Yu. Zhu Xi (12th—13th century, A.D.) also claimed that this poem