On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 278 BC, Qu Yuan was heartbroken and indignant when he learned that Qin Jun had invaded the capital of Chu. Although he wanted to serve the country, he couldn't save this situation, so Qu Yuan chose to be determined to die. After writing the last poem "Huai Sha", he threw himself into the Miluo River with a stone and died.
People along the Yangtze River heard about it. They rowed boats to salvage Qu Yuan for fear that his body would be eaten by fish and shrimp in the river. An old doctor brought an altar of realgar wine and poured it into the river. He said it was to drive away the dragon monster so as not to hurt Qu Yuan's body. Seeing the old doctor doing this, the people also threw rice into the river in succession, hoping that the fish and shrimp would not harm Qu Yuan's health when they were full. Later, people were afraid that rice balls would be eaten by dragons, so they came up with a way to develop zongzi by wrapping rice with neem leaves and wrapping it with colored silk.
Later, on the fifth day of May every year, these customs gradually became the customs of dragon boat racing, drinking realgar wine and eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival today, in memory of the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan. The theory of commemorating Qu Yuan is the most popular and influential one in all folklore, and scholar Tan Shaobing has made a series of arguments about it. Huang also believes that although there are different opinions, the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan still occupies the mainstream position.