Origin of Dragon Boat Festival

Every year, the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is a traditional China festival-Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanyang Festival, Munch Festival, May Festival, etc. According to statistics, there are more than 20 names for the Dragon Boat Festival. For example, there are Duanwu Festival, Duanyang Festival, Chongwu Festival, Zhongwu Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Summer Festival, May Festival, Maroon Festival, Pugu Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Yulan Festival, Qu Yuan Day, Munch Day, Daughter's Day, Dila Festival, Poet Day, Dragon Day, Munch Day, Lantern Festival, Wudan Festival, etc.

The Dragon Boat Festival originated in China. It was originally a festival for the Chinese people to eliminate diseases and epidemic prevention. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, in the land of Wu and Yue, there was a custom of holding tribal totem sacrifices in the form of dragon boat races on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. Later, the poet Qu Yuan died on this day, it became a traditional festival for the Han Chinese people to commemorate Qu Yuan; in some areas, there are also stories commemorating Wu Zixu and Cao E.

Dragon Boat Festival is also one of the national legal holidays in China and has been included in the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Due to the vast territory of China, numerous ethnic groups, and many stories and legends, not only have there been many different festival names, but also different customs in various places.

The main reasons are: when my daughter returns to her mother's home, she hangs the statue of a Kui, welcomes the ghost boat, hides from noon, puts on noon leaf talismans, hangs calamus and wormwood, travels to all diseases, wears fragrant sachets, prepares sacrifices, races in dragon boats, fights, hits the ball, swings, smears realgar for children, drinks realgar wine, calamus wine, eats five-poison cakes, salted eggs, rice dumplings and seasonal fruits.

Today is our traditional Dragon Boat Festival. Xiaobian will popularize the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival for everyone. There are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, among which the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan has the most extensive influence.

1. Originated from the memory of Qu Yuan According to the "Biographies of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng" in the "Historical Records", Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated appointing talents to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and advocated uniting Qi to resist Qin. He was strongly opposed by aristocrat Zi Lan and others. Qu Yuan was dismissed from his job, driven out of the capital, and exiled to the Yuan and Hunan basins. While in exile, he wrote immortal poems such as "Li Sao","Tianwen", and "Nine Songs" that worried about the country and the people. They were unique in style and had far-reaching influence (therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival was also called Poets 'Day). In 278 BC, the Qin army conquered the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw that his motherland was being invaded and his heart ached, but he could not bear to abandon his motherland. On May 5, after writing his final work "Huaisha", he threw himself into the Miluo River and died, writing a magnificent movement of patriotism with his life.

It is said that after Qu Yuan died, the people of Chu were extremely sad and flocked to the Miluo River to pay tribute to Qu Yuan. The fishermen rowed their boats and salvaged his true body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out rice balls, eggs and other food prepared for Qu Yuan and threw it into the river, saying that if the fish and fish crabs were full, they would not bite Doctor Qu's body. People followed suit after seeing it. An old doctor took a jar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying that he wanted to use medicine to stun the dragon and water beast to avoid hurting Dr. Qu. Later, for fear that the rice balls would be eaten by dragons, people came up with the idea of using neem leaves to make rice, wrapped with colorful silk, and developed into brown seeds.

Later, on the fifth day of May every year, there were customs of dragon boat racing, eating rice dumplings, and drinking realgar wine to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

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2. The second legend commemorating Wu Zixu's Dragon Boat Festival has spread widely in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. It commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770- 476 BC). Wu Zixu was a famous member of the State of Chu. His father and brother were both killed by the State of Chu. Later, Zixu abandoned the secret and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and rushed to the State of Wu to help Wu attack Chu. After five battles, he entered Ying City, the capital of Chu. At that time, King Ping of Chu was dead, and Zixu dug his tomb and whipped 300 corpses to avenge the murder of his father and brother. After the death of Helu, King of Wu, his son Fu Chai succeeded to the throne. The morale of the Wu army was high and they were victorious in every battle. The State of Yue was defeated. Gou Jian, King of Yue, asked for peace, but Fu Chai agreed. Zixu suggested that the State of Yue should be completely eliminated, but Fuchai refused to listen. The chief of the State of Wu was bribed by the State of Yue and slandered Zixu. Fuchai believed him and gave Zixu a sword, and Zixu died with it. Zixu was originally a loyal and loyal person and regarded death unafraid. Before his death, he said to his neighbors: "After I died, I dug out my eyes and hung them on the east gate of Wu Capital to watch the Yue army enter the city and destroy Wu." He committed suicide. Fu Chai was furious when he heard this and ordered Zixu's body to be taken and put in leather and thrown into the river on May 5. Therefore, it is said that the Dragon Boat Festival is also a day to commemorate Wu Zixu.

3. Commemorating the filial daughter Cao E The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the filial daughter Cao E of the Eastern Han Dynasty (23-220 AD) who rescued her father and threw her river. Cao E was from Shangyu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Her father drowned in the river, and her body had not been seen for several days. At that time, her filial daughter Cao E was only fourteen years old and cried along the river day and night. Seventeen days later, he also threw himself into the river on May 5, and five days later he took out his father's body. This was passed down into a myth, and then passed down to the governor of the county government. Ling Du Shang erected a monument for it and asked his disciple Handan Chun to write a tribute to it.

The tomb of the filial daughter Cao E is in today's Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Later, it is said that the stele of Cao E was written by King Yi of Jin. In order to commemorate Cao E's filial piety, posterity built a Cao E Temple at the place where Cao E threw herself into the river. The village where she lived was renamed Cao E Town, and the place where Cao E died of her father was named Cao E River. Therefore, it is said that the Dragon Boat Festival is also a day to commemorate the filial daughter Cao E.

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4. A large number of cultural relics unearthed in modern times and archaeological research have confirmed that in the vast area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, during the Neolithic Era, there was a cultural relic characterized by geometric printed pottery. According to experts, the remaining tribe belonged to a tribe that worshipped the totem of dragons-historically known as the Baiyue tribe. The patterns on the unearthed pottery and historical legends show that they had the custom of cutting off hair and tattoos, lived in a water town, and compared themselves to being descendants of dragons. A large number of its production tools are stone tools, as well as small bronzes such as shovels and chisels. Among the jars and jars used as daily necessities, the printed pottery tripod for cooking food is unique to them and one of the symbols of their ethnic group. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was the festival they founded to worship their ancestors.

5. Dragon Festival This statement comes from Wen Yiduo's "Dragon Boat Festival Examination" and "Dragon Boat Festival Historical Education". He believes that the fifth day of May was the day when the tribes of "dragons" in the ancient Wuyue region held totem sacrifices.

The main reasons are: (1) The two main activities of the Dragon Boat Festival, eating rice dumplings and racing, are both related to dragons. Zongzi thrown into the water are often stolen by dragons, while dragon boats are used for racing.

(2) The relationship between racing and ancient Wuyue places is particularly deep. Moreover, the people of Wuyue also had the custom of having hair-cut tattoos "to resemble dragons".

(3) In ancient times, there was a folk custom of using "colorful silk to tie arms" on the fifth day of the fifth month. This should be a relic of the tattoo custom of "resembling a dragon".

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6. Evil day taboos say that Dragon Boat Festival was a poisonous day and an evil day in the eyes of the ancients, and there was a custom of "not mentioning the fifth month", that is, babies born on May 5, whether male or female, could not be raised to adulthood. Once raised, the man will harm the father and the woman will harm the mother. There have even been expressions such as "when you arrive in May, you will not move" and "when you build a house in May, you will feel bald". This custom became popular at the latest from the Warring States Period and remained popular throughout the Han Dynasty. This custom is often recorded in Wang Chong's "Lun Heng" of the Han Dynasty, Ying Shao's "Custom Tong" and "Later Han Dynasty". In fact, this is because the summer weather is hot, people are prone to illness and plague is prone to epidemic; in addition, snakes and insects reproduce and easily bite people, so you have to be very careful to form this habit.

7. The summer solstice was pioneered by Mr. Huang Shi. In 1963, he proposed in the book "History of Dragon Boat Festival Rites and Customs"(published by Qinxing Publishing Company in Hong Kong in 1963) that the Dragon Boat Festival originated in ancient times like a trickle of water. Three generations converged into rivers, the Qin and Han Dynasties expanded into rivers, and the Tang and Song Dynasties absorbed hundreds of rivers to form lakes and seas.

The Dragon Boat Festival originated from the summer solstice. After it was widely known in the world, scholars introduced hundreds of schools to study it from a broader perspective. In 1983, Mr. Liu Deqian believed that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the summer solstice during the Summer, Shang and Zhou periods in his "Another Explanation on the Origin of the Dragon Boat Festival"("Knowledge of History and History", No. 5, 1983), and proposed that "fighting hundreds of herbs" and "collecting miscellaneous medicines" during the Dragon Boat Festival have nothing to do with Qu Yuan. Liu Deqian put forward three main reasons in "Another Explanation on the Origin of the Dragon Boat Festival" and "Interesting Talks on Traditional Chinese Festivals in China":(1) The authoritative New Year's Book "Jingchu New Year's Times" does not mention the festival custom of eating rice dumplings on the fifth day of the May, but writes it on the Summer Solstice Festival. As for the competition, the "Jade Candle Collection" written by Du Taiqing of the Sui Dynasty included it as an entertainment activity on the summer solstice. It can be seen that it was not necessarily to salvage the great poet Qu Yuan who threw himself into the river.

(2) Some contents in the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as "stepping on hundreds of herbs","fighting hundreds of herbs","collecting miscellaneous medicines", etc., have nothing to do with Qu Yuan.

(3) The first explanation of the Dragon Boat Festival in "The Scenery of the Year" is: "The sun leaves are Zhengyang, and the Dragon Boat Festival is in summer, so the Dragon Boat Festival can also be called the Tianzhong Festival. Therefore, the earliest origin of the Dragon Boat Festival was the summer solstice.

At the international academic conference held in Seoul, South Korea in December 2006, Mr. He Xingliang, a researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of China Academy of Social Sciences, once again improved the summer solstice theory and proposed that the Dragon Boat Festival is the summer solstice.

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8. It originated from the orchid bathing According to the Book of Rites, the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the orchid bathing in the Zhou Dynasty. The ancients picked orchids in May, and the custom of bathing in orchids soup and removing poison was prevalent. "Da Dai Li Ji·Xia Xiaozheng":"In May,... boiling plums is for beans, and growing orchids is for bathing." Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs·Yun Zhongjun":"Yulan soup is fragrant, and colorful clothes are beautiful." Zong Xin, a native of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, said in his "Jingchu Year Notes":"May 5th is called the Bath Orchid Festival." This custom was passed down to the Tang and Song Dynasties, and it was also known as the Dragon Boat Festival as the Moon of the Bath Orchid.

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9. Commemorate Jie Zitui According to Cai Yong's "Qin Cao" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the late sage Jie Zitui.

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10. It originated from Gou Jian's practice of the navy. Gao Cheng published an article in the Song Dynasty,"The Source of Things". The Dragon Boat Festival originated from the Spring and Autumn Period, King Gou Jian of Yue, who practiced the navy on that day.