In 293 BC, the State of Qin sent Bai Qi to Yique to attack Korea, achieving a major victory, beheading 240,000 people. The State of Qin then sent a letter to the King of Chu, saying: "The State of Chu has betrayed the State of Qin, and the State of Qin is ready to lead the princes to attack the State of Chu and decide the victory or defeat. I hope you will reorganize your soldiers and fight happily. King Xiang of Chu was very worried, so he planned to make peace with the State of Qin again. Qu Yuan resolutely opposed it, and Zilan instructed Jin Shang to go to king Xiang of Qingxiang to make a slanderous attack, causing Qu Yuan to be exiled to a desolate area in the south for the second time.
The route of this exile, according to the analysis of the "Lamentations", was from Yingdu (Jiangling County, Hubei Province), first going southeast down the river through Xiashou (southeast of Shashi District, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province), Longmen (the east gate of Yingdu) through Dongting Lake into the Yangtze River, then leaving Xiapu (Hankou, Hubei), and finally reaching Lingyang (said to be the south of present-day Qingyang County, Anhui).
Qu Yuan, who wanted to "run for the king of Chu and "die nine times and still have no regrets", watched the motherland step by step towards extinction, but he could not do anything, so he buried the idea of martyrdom with his body.
Around 278 A.D., he crossed Ezhu (Wuchang, Hubei), entered Dongting, traced the Yuanshui, passed through Wuling County, Changde, Hunan) to Chenyang (Chenxi, Hunan), and then turned southeast, entering Pupu, where he stayed temporarily. Soon after, he went down the Yuan River, entered the Dongting, crossed the Xiang River, and reached the Miluo River near Changsha, where Chu was attacked by Qin, and in a state of extreme distress and utter despair, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month; about June 6, 278 BC, the twenty-first year of the reign of King Xiang, Qu Yuan was about 62 years old. It was not until 223 BC, 55 years later, that the State of Chu was destroyed by Qin.