1. A story in honor of Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated the promotion of the virtuous and the capable, the enrichment of the country and the strengthening of the army, and strongly advocated the alliance of Qi against Qin, which was strongly opposed by the aristocrat Zilan and others, and he was disqualified by greed and expelled from the capital city, and was exiled to the Yuan and Xiang valleys. In his exile, he wrote such immortal poems as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Question" and "Nine Songs", which are unique and far-reaching (thus, the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the Poets' Festival).
In 278 B.C., the Qin army broke through the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw his motherland was invaded, heart like a knife, but always can not bear to give up their own motherland, on the 5th of May Dragon Boat Festival, with pen and paper to write down the last pen "Huai Sha", after holding the stone threw Miluo River death, with their own lives composed a magnificent patriotic music. Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu grieved abnormally and flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to Qu Yuan, and the Dragon Boat Festival was set up to commemorate Qu Yuan in later times.
2. Stories in honor of Wu Zixu. One of the legends of the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates Wu Zixu of the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC). Wu Zixu, a native of Chu, his father and brother were killed by the king of Chu, then Zixu abandoned the darkness and ran to Wu to help Wu to conquer Chu, and entered the capital of Chu, Ying City, in five battles. At that time, King Ping of Chu was already dead, and Zixu dug up his grave and whipped his body 300 times to avenge the killing of his father and brother.
After the death of King Helu of Wu, his son Fu-chai succeeded to the throne. The Wu army had high morale and won a hundred battles, and the Yue kingdom was defeated, so King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, and Fu-chai agreed. Zixu suggested that the state of Yue should be completely annihilated, but Fu-chai refused to listen to him. Wu Dazai, who had been bribed by the state of Yue, framed Zixu with slanderous rumors, and Fu-chai believed in him and gave Zixu a sword, with which Zixu died. Zixu was a loyal man, and he killed himself, but Fu Chai was so angry that he ordered Zixu's body to be put into a leather bag and thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and so the Dragon Boat Festival is also said to be a day to commemorate Wu Zixu.
3, in honor of Cao E's story. Cao E is a Shangyu people in the Eastern Han Dynasty, his father drowned in the river, a few days to see the body, the filial daughter of Cao E was only fourteen years old, day and night along the river crying. After seventeen days, she threw herself into the river on May 5, and carried her father's body out five days later. The story was passed down as a myth, and then to the governor of the county, who made Dushan erect a monument for it, and had his disciple Handan Chun make a eulogy in praise of it.
The tomb of Cao E, a filial daughter, is located in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and the monument to Cao E is said to have been written by Wang Yi of the Jin Dynasty. In order to commemorate Cao E's filial piety, the later generations built Cao E Temple in the place where Cao E threw herself into the river, renamed the village and town where she lived as Cao E Town, and named the place where Cao E was martyred as Cao E River, which is why the story of commemorating Cao E is also told.
Historical origin:
The origin of the ancient traditional festival is related to the ancient primitive beliefs, sacrificial culture, and humanistic and natural cultural contents such as celestial phenomena and calendar.
According to the research results of modern anthropology and archaeology, the two most primitive beliefs of human beings are the belief in heaven and earth and the belief in ancestors.
Most of the ancient festivals were formed when ancient people chose auspicious days to offer sacrifices to thank the gods of heaven and earth and their ancestors for their kindness. Early festival culture, reflecting the ancient culture of nature worship, solid origin and other humanistic spirit; a series of sacrificial activities, is embedded in the god of respect and virtue, etiquette and civilization profound cultural connotations.
The origin and development of festivals is a process of gradual formation, refinement and popularization. In ancient times, the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival varied from north to south, and the activities of the Dragon Boat Festival in the pre-Qin era were rarely recorded in the literature of the Central Plains, so it is not possible to directly verify the origin of the festival in the extant literature. About the Dragon Boat Festival related written records, "Dragon Boat" two words, the earliest appeared in the Jin Dynasty's "customs", but the Dragon Boat Festival customs have long existed, such as dragon boat racing ritual custom, has long existed.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia - Dragon Boat Festival