 The work of Wang Fu (82–167 CE) represents one of the strains of Confucian thought that began to gain new ground in the Eastern Han as the dynasty went into decline leading toward the series of catastrophes that would end with the collapse of the Han in the late second and early third centuries CE. The tradition of social criticism had long been part of Confucian scholarship, but Wang Fu’s work Qianfulun (Discourses of a Hermit) revived the theme of Confucian reclusion, a controversial idea, though one suggested in texts such as the Analects itself. Perhaps the most famous example of such reclusion (in Wang’s time and our own) was that of the Warring States Period scholar Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BCE), the subject and purported author of the poems of the Han period compilation Chuci (Songs of Chu). Qu Yuan, faced with the decline of society past the point of reformation, went into exile in the distant wilds, composing his laments including the famous poem Li Sao (compiled in the Chuci), and eventually committing suicide by drowning himself in the river as a final act of righteous protest (see Berkowitz 1992; Schneider 1980).