"In the southern city of South Ying in the Chu Kingdom, between the Yuan and Xiang rivers, the people believed in ghosts and delighted in making offerings. At their rites, they always sang, played music, beat drums, and danced to entertain the gods!"
Chen Cuo opened the slim volume and was met by this note from Wang Yi. It laid out the background, then explained why the work had been composed—
Qu Yuan had seen the common people's rites of worship and their songs and dances. Finding their words crude, he had composed the Nine Songs.
The Nine Songs itself was short. Even with Wang Yi's notes, it filled only a few pages. Chen Cuo had already read it several times that day, yet each reading left him with a different impression.
"Above, it expresses reverence in serving the gods; below, it reveals the knots of grievance within its author. He entrusted them to the songs as veiled admonition. This work was meant for worshipping the gods from the start, but it also held Qu Yuan's grief and indignation. It was closely bound to the Way of Incense from the moment of its creation, while carrying the thoughts of human hearts. I wonder what the Way of Incense was like in the Chu lands of Pre-Qin times. After all, the Cultivation Way only emerged gradually after the Pre-Qin era. Perhaps the Incense Way had its own origins..."
Despite its name, the Nine Songs contained eleven pieces: "Eastern Sovereign Taiyi," "Lord of the Clouds," "Lord of the Xiang," "Lady of the Xiang," "Great Fate Controller," "Lesser Fate Controller," "Lord of the East," "River Earl," "Mountain Ghost," "The Fallen of the Nation," and "Rites for the Souls."
*"They call it the Nine Songs, yet there are eleven pieces. So this tradition goes