Two genealogies of the family name Qu of the poet Qu Yuan

Two genealogies of the family name of the poet Qu Yuan

Qu Yuan 屈原 (343-278 B.C.) was a minister and poet of the Kingdom of Chu during the Period of the Warring States.

There are two genealogies of the family name Qu of the poet Qu Yuan. Neither of them can show any direct link to the poet eventhough many with the family name Qu claim to be his descendants.

Historians have not been able to trace the lineage of the Qu 屈 offspring following the poet’s suicide and drowning in the Miluo River, nor the Qu offspring after the death of Qu Xia in 701 B.C. when he lost a battle with the state of Luo, escaped to Huangyu and hanged himself. Qu Xia was the son of Chu Wu Wang (?-690 B.C.), King Wu of the state of Chu. The king assigned his son Xia to the Qu prefecture as governor, and Xia’s offspring took the name of the prefecture Qu as their family name.

The two genealogies are the Hunan Hengyang Qu family genealogy and the Chengdu Huayang Qu family genealogy.

The Chengdu Huayang Qu family genealogy began in 1812 during the reign of Jiaqing (1796-1820) of the Qing dynasty. It was revised in 1925. This genealogy traces the Qu family name back to an official named Qu in the court of Song Taizu (reigned 960-976 A.D.). This official was of Shu (Sichuan) ancestry. The court sent him to serve as governor of Jizhoulu in Jiangxi province. Later, he traveled by way of Hunan to Sichuan, then back to the Kingdom of Chu and settled down in retirement in Hengyang, Hunan province.

The Hunan Hengyang Qu family genealogy traces the origin of the Qu family name to an official named Qu Cheng in the court of Zhou Cheng Wang (reigned 1042-1021 B.C.) of the Zhou dynasty.

According to a claim by an 85-year-old man named Qu Chuping of Hunan ancestry who was born in Chengdu, he is the 70th generation of the poet Qu Yuan, and his lineage traces back to the eldest son of the poet Qu Yuan. He says that during the reign of Qianlong (1735-1796 A.D.), two brothers named Qu Nianyong and Qu Nianwen of Hengyang in Hunan province moved to Sichuan. Qu Nianyong settled in Huayang in Chengdu, and Qu Nianwen settled in Zhonghe, Chengdu.

In Chongqing, a villager in Gaoloushan village in Tongnan county named Qu Huijun claims that she is the 72nd generation of the poet Qu Yuan.

Some 130 villagers in the Lianhuawuji village in Qifuxiang in Yuechi county in Guangan City also claim to be the descendants of the poet Qu Yuan.

There are over 20 families with the last name Qu in Baobuli in Zhanghua city in central Taiwan who claim to be descendants of the poet Qu Yuan.

However, none of them can provide any genealogy that can be traced directly to the poet. The only thing that has been established so far is that the family name Qu of the lineage of Qu Xia originated from the prefecture name of Qu dating back to before 690 B.C.

Qu is the clan name of the poet Qu Yuan whose ancestral name was Mi.

So Qu Yuan (343-278 B.C.) the poet may be of the clan of Qu of the descendants of Qu Xia (701 B.C.). And perhaps the offspring of the Qu prefecture may have migrated to Hunan and then to Sichuan and passed down the lineage of the Chengdu Huayang Qu family genealogy to the official named Qu of the reign of Song Taizu (960-976 A.D.).

It is also possible that Qu Yuan the poet may be of the clan of Qu of the descendants of the official Qu Cheng in the court of Zhou Cheng Wang (reigned 1042-1021 B.C.).