A scholar's allusion evoking the Xiang River (
湘水) in Hunan — the river associated with
屈原 (Qu Yuan), 《
楚辞》 and the drowned goddesses
湘君/
湘夫人.
余波 = 'remaining waves / aftermath of a wave.' The phrase belongs to the classical trope that later literary production is only the afterswell of the ancient Chu poets; frequently cited in Qing and Republican-era literary criticism on Hunan writers.
