First, it originated from the little snake that turned into a dragon in the legend of "Digging the Tail Dragon" of Zhuang nationality. The little snake has five colors: black, red, yellow, purple and white. Therefore, in order to commemorate the filial piety of this little snake, people used various plants such as maple leaves to dye glutinous rice into black, red, yellow and purple, together with white glutinous rice, to make a five-color glutinous rice sacrifice to ancestors.

The second is to commemorate the Zhuang hero Wei Dagui. After Wei Dagui was persecuted to death by the landlord, Zhuang people often took glutinous rice to pay homage to his grave. One day, when paying homage, it suddenly became stormy and thunderous, and the juice of various plants on the grave fell into the glutinous rice and dyed it colorful. Wei Dagui broke out of the grave and turned into a dragon.

Third, a filial young man carries his disabled mother on his back to take care of him every day when he goes up the mountain to get firewood. But the monkeys on the mountain always take away the rice balls prepared by the young man for his mother. In order to prevent his mother from starving, the young man tried to dye the rice balls with maple leaves, and the rice balls were never taken away by the monkeys. Later, people dyed the rice balls with various plants.