From Bill Porter, Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits, chapter 3:

For some, following the Tao meant a life of seclusion. For others, it meant a life of public service. Regardless of the choice a given individual may have made, throughout Chinese history there was a never-ending dialectic between these two alternatives. In the Chutzu [a classic anthology attributed to Qu Yuan and also known as the Chu Ci], “The Fisherman” continues the dialogue:

when Ch’u Yuan was banished
he wandered along rivers
he sang on their banks
weak and forlorn
till a fisherman asked
aren’t you the Lord of the Gorges
what fate has brought you to this
and Ch’u Yuan answered
the world is muddy
I alone am clean
everyone is drunk
I alone am sober
and so they sent me away
and the fisherman said
a sage isn’t bothered by others
he can change with the times
if the world is muddy
splash in the mire
if everyone is drunk
drink up the dregs
why get banished
for deep thought and purpose
and Ch’u Yuan said he had heard
when you clean your hair
you should dust off your hat
when you take a bath
you should shake out your robe
why should I let something so pure
be ruined and wronged by others
I’d rather jump into the Hsiang
and be buried in a fish’s gut
than let something so white be stained by common dirt
the fisherman smiled and rowed away singing
when the Tsanglang is clear I wash my hat
when the Tsanglang is muddy I wash my feet
and once gone he was heard from no more

An interpretation of this story from the website of The Met Museum:
“Dejected at his banishment from the capital, Qu complains to the fisherman of a world gone mad. The fisherman replies that Qu should take the world as it comes and adapt to changing circumstances.”