Liang and Wu both recorded in the book "Harmony and Continuation of Qi": "Qu Yuan, the doctor of Chu, died in the Miluo River on the fifth day of May, and the Chu people mourned it and saved it by boat. Crossing the river again is a legacy. " It shows that the dragon boat race is held in memory of Qu Yuan. After the Ming Dynasty, this custom became more popular. Not only the imperial court held a race, but also the folk places held a race, and the scene was extremely spectacular.

China people's worship of dragons originated very early. The dragon-shaped jade unearthed in Hongshan Culture site shows that our primitive ancestors' understanding of dragons is an animal with a horse's head, a snake's body, no horns, no scales and no feet. Legend has it that primitive people can build dams and secluded mountains with stones at mountain passes or troughs to attract dragons, capture them and domesticate them as water media. But this method is very risky, so people use a canoe made of single wood instead of dragons. It was not until the Warring States period that the ship was renamed "Dragon Boat" in the Biography of Dong Jun by Mu and Qu Yuan.

The real cause of death of Qu Yuan

Since Sima Qian wrote history, the touching story of Qu's sinking into the Miluo River due to political anxiety has been widely circulated. The only evidence is Huai Sha written by the poet after he was exiled. According to the poem, the way to commit suicide has been determined, which is to jump into the river angrily and embrace the soft sediment at the bottom of the river. In this regard, as early as 1930s, Mr. Hu Shi questioned that many words in the poem "Huai Sha" did not conform to Qu Yuan's model, and were probably fakes concocted by later generations according to the legend of his suicide.

So, how did Qu Yuan die? At present, among scholars and historians at home and abroad, the saying that "Qu Yuan died of murder" is very popular. In the era when Qu Yuan lived, many people were suspected of murdering him, such as his old political enemies Ling Zilan and Shanxi merchants, but Qu Yuan had been demoted. They don't need to kill this politically hopeless person unless there are very special reasons. In this way, Qu Yuan was just a victim of a secret love in the end.

Qu Yuan's romanticism in his love life is well known. He wrote many love poems, the most interesting of which is Mrs. Xiang, because Qu Yuan has unusual attachment and admiration for her. It can be inferred from the poem that this woman is amazingly beautiful and has a higher status than Qu Yuan. Because of various restrictions, she can't meet Qu Yuan publicly, but she can only meet secretly in the wild. Only one woman meets these three conditions, and that is Princess Zheng Xiu, Chu Huaiwang's favorite. In fact, the word "Mrs. Xiang" already implies that "Xiang" is Chu; Madame is the wife and concubine of the king of Chu.

When the ambiguous relationship between Qu Yuan and his beloved concubine was known by Wang Huai, it prompted him to exile Qu Yuan in the name of politics, so that people could never see Zheng Xiu again. Ten years later, Chu Huaiwang died. In order to prevent the relationship between Qu Yuan and Zheng Xiu from turning back, the Chu royal family obeyed Chu Huaiwang's orders and sent people to kill Qu Yuan. Today's Miluo River is the place where the massacre took place. The soldiers finally caught Qu Yuan by the river, stabbed him to death, put him in a bag, tied him tightly, put stones on it and threw them into the river, which staged a cruel historical tragedy.

There are still people who witnessed the murder, but under the tyranny at that time, they had to tell the truth euphemistically, so there was the origin of the "Dragon Boat Festival": on the day of commemorating another Chu hero Wu Zixu (the fifth day of May), a sacrificial ceremony was held to mourn Qu Yuan, and a dragon boat race was used to compare the fierce scene of hunting Qu Yuan at that time; Use zongzi to compare the tragic fact that Qu Yuan was thrown into the river-glutinous rice symbolizes Qu Yuan's body, zongzi leaves symbolize the bag in which he was put, and zongzi silk symbolizes the rope that bound him; Putting zongzi into the water symbolizes the truth that Qu Yuan was drowned.

History is hidden behind customs.