Chu Ci — 路漫漫其修远兮

This line captures a spirit of tireless, solitary pursuit—“The road ahead is long and arduous; I will search high and low.” It appears in *Li Sao* (“Encountering Sorrow”), the longest and most celebrated poem in the *Chu Ci*, a collection of verse traditionally associated with the poet Qu Yuan and other writers from the southern state of Chu. Written in a lyrical, highly personal voice, *Li Sao* recounts a spiritual journey: the speaker, exiled and disillusioned, ascends to heaven and descends to the underworld, seeking truth, virtue, and worthy guidance. “I will search high and low” marks a turning point—not resignation, but resolve. It follows reflections on the difficulty of the path and precedes visions of divine chariots, mythical beasts, and celestial gates. The phrase does not promise success, only commitment: to keep moving, questioning, testing ideals against reality. In the *Chu Ci*, such intensity stands apart from the more ritualized or didactic tone of earlier texts like the *Shi Jing*. Here, moral conviction takes the form of restless motion—upward toward gods, downward into darkness, always forward despite uncertainty. The language is vivid and embodied: “high and low” evokes physical ascent and descent, not abstract thought. Readers encounter not a doctrine, but a stance—one that has resonated across centuries precisely because it names a human posture before the unknown: persistent, unguarded, and deeply earnest.