“Their bodies may have died, but their souls are living: Heroes among the shades their valiant souls will be.”
— David Hawkes’ translation of Guo Shang
Written over two thousand years ago during China’s Warring States period, Qu Yuan’s Guo Shang (literally “national casualties”) is one of the most stirring war elegies in world literature. It stands apart from the Nine Songs—a collection of shamanistic hymns to gods and spirits—as the only piece that honors mortal warriors rather than divine beings.
