Chu Ci — 亦余心之所善兮

This line—“Also that which my heart holds good, though nine deaths still I would not repent”—captures the fierce, unwavering commitment at the core of *Li Sao* (“Encountering Sorrow”), the longest and most celebrated poem in the *Chu Ci*. Here, the speaker affirms devotion to inner truth over external approval, even at the cost of exile or death. The surrounding lines deepen this resolve: he refuses to “follow crooked ways” or “compete in flattery,” declaring instead that “the eagle does not flock with common birds” and that “how can square and round fit together?” His integrity is embodied in ritual acts—“making lotus leaves my robe, gathering hibiscus for my skirt”—and in his insistence that “though none knows me, if my feelings are truly fragrant, that is enough.” The *Chu Ci* as a whole gathers poems rooted in the southern state of Chu, distinct in voice and imagery from the more restrained *Shi Jing*, and *Li Sao* stands as its emotional and philosophical center. Its speaker does not merely lament injustice; he reasserts moral clarity through self-fashioning, memory, and vision—choosing fidelity to an inner standard when all else collapses. That choice, voiced so starkly in “though nine deaths still I would not repent,” remains startling in its intensity and simplicity.