Nine Longings (Chinese: ; pinyin: Ji s; literally: "Nine Longings") form one of the 17 major sections of the ancient

Chinese poetry collection, the Chu ci. The "Nine Longings" consists of ten poems (or, nine plus luan envoi), each individually
titled, written according to the style of the earlier pieces in the Chu ci anthology. It is one of the several collections of poems
grouped under the title of "Nine" something-or-others, most but not all of which consist of 9 pieces of poetry. One of the older
of them, Jiu ge ("Nine Songs") consists of 11 individual pieces: "nine" in antiquity was often used as a synonym for "many",
and in the context of the Chu cigenerally refers to a musical arrangement with "nine" modal changes. (Hawkes, 2011 [1985]:
36-37) The "Nine Longings" poems were written by the Han Dynastyroyal librarian, Wang Yi, who is more famous for his
commentary on the Chu ci than he is for these original works which he appended to his published annotated copy. (Hawkes,
2011 [1985]: 307)