On Quyuan's Tragic Personality

If we regard Quyuan as a scholar and an aristocratic intellectual in Chu State, and probe into the tragic element in his personality, many hidden questions can be answered from Quyuan himself. Psychological analysis is an appropriate perspective. In the frame of psychology and on the theoretical basis of the latest development in personality psychology, this paper describes systematically and profoundly Quyuan's tragic personality, traces its evolution, and finally summarizes the cultural values of his tragic personality by comparison.The paper is divided into the following three parts:Chapter one is the static description of Quyuan's personality. Firstly, by defining the concept of "personality" and constructing the conceptual system of "personality", this article describes and explains Quyuan's personality and inner conflict from the perspective of psychology in terms of the text itself and the broader historic, cultural and social context. Secondly, it probes into his personalityby employing the latest development of personality psychology--Big Five.Among the Big Five, Quyuan has very active "conscientiousness", "extraversion" and "openness", obvious "neuroticism" and low "agreeableness". The last two are the leading factors of his tragic personality, the reason of which is his status anxiety and cultural anxiety. Lastly, his tendency of narcissism, which displays in sublimation, fantasy and pursuit of perfection, is an important encumbrance to his ideal political ambition. His superstition of his birth, the high evaluation of hisfamily, his inborn talent, poetic personality and noble family background--allthese constitute the inner source of his narcissism personality.Chapter two traces dynamically the evolution of his tragic personality. From the content of Songs of Quyuan and the affection revealed in it, Quyuan's life can be generally divided into three stages. The first stage is his prime time. In this period of time, from riding on the crest of success to the predicament of being slandered, alienated and denorted. he was neither depressed nor indignant. Instead, he pursuedhis ambition persistently, full of hope and confidence. The second stage is his middle-aged time. Taking Emperor Huai's death in Qin State in B.C. 269 as the turning point, Quyuan experienced extraordinary mental torment and uncompromising inner conflict He had already showed some symptoms of abnormal psychology, such as trance, hallucination, mania, excitement and anxiety.The third stage is his going to suicide. His death is a logical development of his personality in that historic condition, a necessary choice after his active pursuance of life. It is the outburst of his tragic personality, though it also had something to do with his physical tiredness and abnormal psychology. His death is both the extrication from the tragic personality and the sublimation of his noble personality. It is the guarding of individual's esteem and value, as well as the defending of the beauty of an ideal personality. The later stage of his life, the more specific and tragic his personality is, thus more heart-quaking.Chapter three deals with the cultural value of his tragic personality. It has rich cultural values for pre-Qin "practice rational", personality paradigm and literature paradigm. Firstly, the life awareness and critical spirit in his tragic personality, far different from the rational thinking of others, provide the rational values rich in Chu culture flavor for the pre-Qin "practice rational".Secondly, by comparing the similarities and difference between Quyuan's personality and the Scholar's personality, the paper holds that what's special about Quyuan is not his personality, but the practice of his personality. His tragic personality is the pre-enactment of that of Chinese literary men, thus it can be regarded as a personality archetype. Lastly, in his tragic personality obvious "neuroticism", low "agreeableness" and narcissism make his poems full of self-consciousness and perceptual spirit, as well as str...