The folklore of red bean zongzi
According to Tang Shenyaji's Biography of Qu Yuan, people miss Qu Yuan very much after he jumped into the river. On the fifth day of May, he puts food in a bamboo tube and throws it into the water for sacrifice. During the Jianwu period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a man named Qu Hui in Changsha. In broad daylight, he suddenly met Qu Yuan, a doctor in San Lv, and told him that the food used for the sacrifice had been stolen by the dragon, and that if he threw it again in the future, he would wrap it with leaves of Polygonum hydropiper and colored thread. These things are afraid of dragons. He won't eat them. District Hui told the villagers about this adventure, and the villagers made zongzi carefully according to Qu Yuan's instructions. This custom has been passed down to this day. This magical legend was first written by Wu Yun, a writer in the Liang Dynasty, and was included in Continued Harmony. It shows that Zongzi is a sacrificial food for people to commemorate Qu Yuan, and later it became the most important holiday food for the Dragon Boat Festival. As for why it should be thrown into the water, one is for Qu Yuan, and the other is to throw it into the river to feed the dragons. That is to say, Zongzi is specially used to feed Xiaolong, lest it hurt Qu Yuan's body.