Qu Yuan was a patriotic minister of the State of Chu during the Warring States period and a great patriotic poet in history.
Qu Yuan's upright character and patriotic actions were ostracized and slandered by the aristocracy of the time. He was removed from his post and exiled. He wrote the famous "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions", "Nine Songs" and other poems that worried about the country and the people.
In 278 B.C., Chu was defeated, and Qu Yuan was distraught. On the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Qu Yuan, who was about sixty-two years old, went to the Miluo River, hugged a stone and threw himself into the river in despair.
The local people knew about it, and rowed their boats to rescue him, but found nothing. Worried that the fish and shrimp in the water would eat Qu Yuan's body, the people brought rice balls from home and fed them to the fish and shrimp in the river.
Gradually, evolved into the Dragon Boat Festival race to eat zongzi custom. The Dragon Boat Festival is also considered to be a festival in honor of Qu Yuan.
Legendary Stories (Illustrative Stories)
(1) Qu Yuan Throws Himself into the River
In order to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, the inhabitants, in order not to let the body of Qu Yuan, who had jumped down to the Miluo River, be eaten by the fishes and shrimps, threw down a lot of rice (zongzi) wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river, and competed with each other in the hope of finding the body of Qu Yuan in the boat race (dragon boat race).
(2) Cao E looking for her father's body
The Eastern Han Dynasty filial daughter Cao E, because Cao's father drowned in the river, only fourteen years old, she cried along the river, after seventeen days still do not see Cao's father's body, was thrown into the river on the first day of May, five days later, the two corpses embraced and floated the touching, the countryside crowd and sacrifices.
(C) White Snake
The legend of the White Snake Bai Suzhen, in order to repay Xu Xian's favor, and Xu Xian married the poignant love story, the legend of the Dragon Boat Festival day White Snake drank the Xionghuang wine, almost appeared in the shape of a snake, coupled with the Fahai White Snake and flooding the Jinshan Temple of the plot, are the repertoire of the popular folk opera.
(4) the anniversary of the death of Wu Zixu
Legend has it that after Wu Zixu helped Wu to conquer Chu, King Helu of Wu died, and his son Fu Chai succeeded to the throne, and he was victorious in the battle against Yue, and Yue Wang Juguan asked for peace, and Wu Zixu led the battle, and Fu Chai didn't listen to him, but he listened to the words of the treacherous ministers, and he gave Wu Zixu to kill himself, and he threw the dead body into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month, and since then, people have been worshiping Wu Zixu in the Duanwu Festival.
Second, related customs
Duanwu Festival is also known as the Festival of Heaven, because after the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the weather is getting hot, so mosquitoes and flies breed, infectious diseases are very easy to occur, so the ancients called the month of May for the "month of evil," or "month of the hundred poisons. At the Dragon Boat Festival, the sunlight is the hottest, and all the poisons come out. Ancient people then used the Five Rays of Heaven - five plants: calamus, mugwort, pomegranate flower, garlic and santan to remove all kinds of poisons, which can be regarded as the hygiene festival in ancient China.
After the founding of the Republic of China, it was designated as the "Summer Festival" and was also called the "Poet's Festival" in honor of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan. The Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the "Pope Festival" because every family hangs calamus to avoid evil spirits.
The Dragon Boat Festival is associated with the following customs:
(a) eat zongzi
is because of Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, the people are afraid of Qu Yuan's body was eaten by the fish, shrimp, so with a bamboo tube loaded with good rice into the river, and later evolved into a bamboo culm sheaths, bamboo leaves wrapped in a good put into the river to feed the fish, shrimp.
(2) drink xionghuang
Because after the Dragon Boat Festival, all kinds of insects, began to be active, the plague more and more, and xionghuang has the function of eliminating epidemics; also because of the story of the White Snake, the White Snake drank xionghuang wine, and then almost appeared in the shape of a snake, so the people are up and seemingly, hoping to receive the function of removing the evil.
(3) Hanging Mugwort, Calamus and Banyan Branches
The Dragon Boat Festival has its own reasons for hanging Mugwort, Calamus or Pomegranate and Garlic at the door. Usually, moxa, banyan and calamus are tied into a bundle with red paper and then inserted or hung on the door. Because calamus is the first of the Five Rays in Heaven, symbolizing the sword that removes bad luck, and because of its season of growth and shape, it is considered to be sensitive to the "hundred yin's qi", and its leaves are in the shape of a sword, it can be inserted in the doorway to ward off evil spirits. The leaves are sword-shaped and can be inserted in the doorway to protect against evil spirits. Therefore, it was called the "Water Sword" by the priests, and later on, the custom was extended to the "Po Sword", which can cut down a thousand evil spirits. In the Qing Dynasty, Gu Tieqing wrote in "Qingjialu", "Cutting off the bushes as swords, cutting the fluff as whips, and using peach stalks and garlic as accessories, hanging them in beds and households, all of which are used to ward off evil spirits". And the Jin Dynasty "local customs" in the "in the shape of a tiger, or cut color as a small tiger, post to Ai leaves, the inner people compete to cut. Later, more calamus, or as a human figure, or Xiaojian-like, named Pu Jian, to drive away evil spirits and ghosts.