Originally commemorating Qu Yuan
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, "Qu Yuan Jia Sheng Lianzhuan", Qu Yuan, was a minister of King Huai of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated for 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, Qu Yuan was gluttonously dismissed from his post, driven out of the capital city, and was exiled to the Yuan and Xiang basins. During his exile, he wrote such immortal poems as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" 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 attacked the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw his motherland being invaded, and his heart was cut to pieces, but he could not bear to give up his motherland, and on the 5th of May, after writing his final work "Huai Sha", he threw himself into the Miluo River, and died, composing a magnificent piece of patriotism with his own life.
Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu grieved and flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to him. The fishermen rowed up their boats and salvaged his real body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out for Qu Yuan prepared rice balls, eggs and other food, "flop, flop" thrown into the river, said that the fish and lobsters and crabs eat enough, will not go to bite the body of Dr. Qu. People see have followed suit. An old physician to bring a altar of yellow wine poured into the river, said to be drug stunned dragon water beasts, so as not to harm Dr. Qu. Later, for fear that the rice ball for the dragon to eat, people came up with a neem leaf wrapped rice, wrapped in colorful silk, the development of brown.
Later, on the fifth day of the fifth month of every year, there is a dragon boat race, eat zongzi, drink xionghuang wine custom; in order to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is widely circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC). Wu Zixu, a native of Chu, had his father and brother killed by the king of Chu. Later, Wu Zixu gave up his darkness and ran to Wu to help Wu conquer Chu, and entered Ying City, the capital of Chu, in five battles. At that time, King Ping of Chu had already died, 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 greatly defeated, and King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, and Fu Chai agreed to it. Zixu suggested that the state of Yue should be completely destroyed, 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 him and gave Zixu a sword, which he used to kill him. Zi Xu was loyal, like death, before his death, said to the neighboring people: "after my death, will be gouged out of my eyes hanging in the east gate of the capital of Wu, in order to see the Vietnamese army into the city to destroy Wu," and then cut his own throat, Fu Chai was furious at the words, ordered to take the Zi Xu's body in the leather on the fifth of May into the river, and so the Dragon Boat Festival is also said to be the day to commemorate the Wu Zi Xu.
The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates Cao E, a filial daughter who saved her father's life and threw herself into the river in the Eastern Han Dynasty (23 - 220 AD). Cao E was a native of Shangyu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Her father drowned in the river, and the body was not seen for several days; at that time, Cao E was only fourteen years old, and she cried along the river day and night. After seventeen days, she threw herself into the river on May 5, and carried her father's body out five days later. This is a myth, and it was passed down to the governor of the county, who made Du Shang erect a monument for it, and let his disciple Handan Chun make a eulogy in praise of it.
The tomb of the filial daughter Cao E, in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, later rumored that Cao E monument was written by Jin Wang Yi. To commemorate the filial piety of Cao E, the descendants built the Cao E Temple in the place where Cao E threw herself into the river, renamed the village where she lived as Cao E Town, and named the place where Cao E died for her father as Cao E River.
Originating from the ancient Vietnamese national totem sacrifice
A large number of recent excavated artifacts and archaeological research confirms that: the vast area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in the Neolithic era, there is a geometric printed ceramic as a characteristic of the cultural remains. The remains of the clan, according to experts inferred to be a worship of the dragon totem tribe ---- history called the Baiyue tribe. Unearthed pottery on the decoration and historical legends show that they have the custom of breaking hair tattoos, living in the water countryside, self-comparison is the descendants of the dragon. Their production tools, a large number of stone tools, but also shovels, chisels and other small pieces of bronze. As a living thing in the altar pots and jars, cooking food printed pots are unique to them, is one of the symbols of their community. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was the festival they created for ancestor worship. Over thousands of years of history, most of the Baiyue people have been integrated into the Han Chinese, while the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south, making the Dragon Boat Festival a festival for the entire Chinese nation
.