Qu Yuan was born a member of the ruling house of Chu, a large state in the central valley of the Yangtze River. While still in his 20s he was appointed a trusted, favoured counselor of his kinsman Huaiwang, the ruler of Chu. Qu Yuan advocated the unpopular policy of resistance to Qin, the most powerful of the Warring States, causing his rival courtiers to intrigue successfully against him. Estranged from the throne through the malice of his rivals, Qu Yuan was banished to the south of the Yangtze River by Huaiwang's successor, Qingxiangwang.

In despair over his banishment, Qu Yuan wandered about southern Chu, writing poetry and observing the shamanistic folk rites and legends that greatly influenced his works. He eventually drowned himself in despair in the Miluo River, a tributary of the Yangtze. The famous Dragon Boat Festival, held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar year, originated as a search for the poet's body.

The works of Qu Yuan have survived in an early anthology, the Chuci (“Elegies of Chu”; Eng. trans. The Songs of the South, 1959), much of which must be attributed to later poets writing about the legendary life of Qu Yuan. The anthology begins with the long melancholic poem Lisao (“On Encountering Sorrow”), Qu Yuan's most famous work, which initiated a tradition of romanticism in Chinese literature.