340 BC, the patriotic poet, the Chu state doctor Qu Yuan, faced with the pain of the country, on May 5, grief and anger in the arms of the stone cast the Buro River, in order not to make the fish and shrimp damage to his body, the people have to use a bamboo tube loaded with rice into the river. Later, in order to show respect and remembrance of Qu Yuan, every day, people will use bamboo tubes loaded with rice, throw the river to pay homage, which is China's earliest zongzi - "tube zongzi" origin.

Why later with mugwort leaves or reed leaves, lotus leaves package zongzi? So, people will be "Mushroom leaves wrapped in millet", made of "corn", passed down from generation to generation, and gradually developed into China's Dragon Boat Festival food.

Expanded :

The general view is that the Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi is to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan, in fact, according to expert testimony, zongzi is nothing more than ordinary folk food, initially ate zongzi is not fixed in the Dragon Boat Festival, said the Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi is a sacrifice to the qu yuan, is the formation of the later attached to reflect the public's heart desire only.

Legend, 340 BC, the patriotic poet, Chu State doctor Qu Yuan, faced with the pain of the country, on May 5, angrily embracing the big stone cast the Buro River, in order not to make the fish and shrimp damage to his body, people have to use a bamboo tube loaded with rice into the river. Later, in order to show respect and remembrance of Qu Yuan, every day, people will use bamboo tubes loaded with rice, throw the river to pay homage, which is China's earliest zongzi - "tube zongzi" origin.

Maybe you will say, that eating rice dumplings, dragon boat racing should always be with Qu Yuan, it is not people in the river after he threw himself, used to commemorate him? That's not necessarily the case. According to evidence, the Dragon Boat Racing custom, as early as Qu Yuan has existed before. Wu Yue in the Spring and Autumn period before the 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. In the works of Qu Yuan himself, the custom of racing can also be reflected, such as in "Chu Ci" (Chu Ci), "Shibu Jiang", which reads: "Taking a boat to the Yuan Ruoxi, and striking a boat with the Wu list." The boat was essentially a ferry boat at that time.

And zongzi, the earliest relevant written records from Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi", showing that the custom of eating zongzi earlier than the death of Qu Yuan more than 400 years; the Western Jin Zhou in the "record of the land and customs", "on the fifth of May and the summer solstice to eat", see the ancients also ate zongzi on the summer solstice, not only in the Dragon Boat Festival to eat this kind of food.

Reference: People's Daily Online - Why do we need to wrap the dumplings and eat them at the Dragon Boat Festival?

People's Daily Online - How did the Dragon Boat Festival come about? Why eat dumplings?