Duan_Wu_Festival

Duan wu Festival Duan wu Festival ，also called “Double Fifth Day” “Duan Yang” “Tian Zhong Jie” “Xia Jie” “Dragon Boat Festival” and so on, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It is said to have more than 20 lores of Duan wu Festival. Our forefathers tended to take days which have the same number with the month as festivals. In addition to January the first, February the second、 March the third、June the sixth、July the seventh、 September the ninth are also festivals. However, of all the festivals, Duan wu Festival draws even more attention of people. People have always been arguing about the origin of Duan wu Festival throughout ages and have given their own explanations. As is concluded by scholars, not less than 10 folklores about Duan wu Festival are spreading. And the most influential one is said to commemorate Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was a great poet of the state of Chu during the Warring States Period (475 BC-221BC). Early in Qu Yuan’s life, he won the confidence of King Huai of Chu and was appointed as san lu da fu (a very high and important position of that time). However, King Huai was surrounded by treacherous court officials later and believed their slanderous talk about Qu Yuan. These evil governors dissuaded King Huai from taking Qu Yuan’s advice of making alliance with the neighboring Qi state as a way to fight against the Qin state. As a result, King Huai was cheated to go to the Qin state and died there. To people’s disappointment, the successor, King Xiang, still distrusted Qu Yuan and thought little of re-energizing the country. Then Qu Yuan was deposed and exiled by the King, and had roamed about the catchments areas of Xiang River and Ruan River for a long time. Finally, Ying, capital of Chu, was conquered by the Qin army and Qu Yuan’s ambition of saving his beloved country turned out to be impossible. In great pain, the patriotic poet committed suicide by drowning himself in Milo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Hearing the grievous news, the people of Chu rushed to the river and sailed their boats up and down to look for the poet’s body; someone threw Zong zi (pyramid-shaped glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves) into the river to divert possible fish or shrimp from attacking Qu Yuan’s body; an old doctor poured a jug of realgar wine (Chinese liquor seasoned with realgar) into the water, hoping to secure Qu Yuan’s body by turning the aquatic dragon drunk. Afterwards, people found a dragon floating on the surface of the water, with a piece of Qu Yuan’s clothes bonding to its feeler. They thereupon drew the dragon out of the water and had its head cut and tendons pulled out. Then people wound the tendons around children’s hands and necks to drive out venomous serpents and injurious insects. There is also another lore. It is said that after Qu Yuan’s leaping into the Milo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the mourners would put rice into bamboo tubes and then threw them into the river to commemorate their loved poet on that day every year. One day, a man dreamt about Qu Yuan who told him that all the rice people had thrown into the river was eaten by a huge aquatic dragon and advised the mourners to put some chinaberry leaves into the bamboo tubes and bind the tubes with five different-colored threads before tossing them into the river. The poet said that the dragon would be afraid of such tubes and dare not to rob rice any longer. From then on, the local people began to do as what Qu Yuan had said. And it is the origin of Zong zi which were wrapped with chinaberry leaves and five different-colored threads. It is evident that though both of the two lores take Qu Yuan as the core character, they differ in details. The two lores refer to some customs and activities on Duan wu Festival, such as dragon boating 、wrapping Zong zi、winding five different-colored threads and so on .However, some maintain that such lores are a way for people to show their admiration and respect for the great patriotic poet and convey people’s good sentiment, which should be valued. Some of Qu Yuan’s representative poems, such as Li Sao (The Lament)、 Tian Wen (Heavenly Questions) and Jiu Ge (Nine Songs), have been oft-quoted and widely loved. They are like resplendent pearls shining in the sky of the world of letters. There is no doubt that Qu Yuan’s great achievements in poetry rendered his name immoral. It is therefore not hard for us to understand people’s suggestion of changing the name of Duan wu Festival into Poet’s Festival. And from this point of view, it is also reasonable for people to have such a preference for the lores.