The origin of Dragon Boat Festival: Twenty Crossing.

Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanyang Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Chongwu Festival and Tianzhong Festival. It is a folk festival that combines offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, praying for evil spirits, celebrating entertainment and eating.

The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival was originally founded by ancestors of southern wuyue to worship the ancestors of dragons. It is said that Qu Yuan, a poet of Chu State in the Warring States Period, jumped into the Miluo River on May 5th and committed suicide. Later, people also took the Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan. There are also sayings in memory of Wu Zixu, Cao E and meson push.

Festival introduction

Literally, the Dragon Boat Festival also has names such as "Dragon Boat Festival", "Chongwu" and "Chongwu". "Duan" has the meaning of beginning and ending in ancient Chinese, and calling "Duan Wu" is just like calling "the fifth day". "Local Customs" said: "Midsummer Dragon Boat Festival. End, start. " There are three five days in a month, and the first five days are the Dragon Boat Festival. The ancients used to call the first few days of May end to end respectively. In Yuan Dynasty, Chen's Chronicle of Years Old says: "City dust people take the first day of May as the beginning and end, the second day as the beginning and end, and the even number five as the beginning and end."

According to the chronological order of heavenly stems and earthly branches, the first month of the lunar calendar begins in silver moon. According to the chronological order of Tatsumi's ugly son, May is "noon month" and noon is "sunny day", so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duanyang". In the afternoon, the ancients and the "Five" are common, so the Dragon Boat Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival are synonymous. Because the number of months is the same as the number of days, people also call the Dragon Boat Festival "Double Five Festival" or "Double Noon Festival".

According to statistics, there are more than 20 names of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as Dragon Boat Festival, Duanyang Festival, Chongwu Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Dangwu Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Summer Festival, May Festival, Long Festival, Pujie Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Yulan Festival, Quyuan Festival, Noon Festival, Daughter's Day, Dila Festival, Poet's Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Noon Festival and Lantern Festival.

Several names of the Dragon Boat Festival are called:

1, the Dragon Boat Festival "Duan" means "Chu", so "Dragon Boat Festival" is "the fifth day". According to the calendar, May is the noon month, so the Dragon Boat Festival has gradually evolved into the Dragon Boat Festival. The Chronicle of Yanjing Years Old records: "The fifth day is the fifth day of May, and the transliteration of the word' Duan' is also stamped."

2, Duanyang Festival According to the "Jingchu Chronicle" records, because of climbing in midsummer, the sun is in the sky, May is midsummer, and its first afternoon is a good day to climb the sun, so it is called "Duanyang Festival".

Mid-Autumn Festival belongs to the twelve earthly branches, and May in the lunar calendar is mid-autumn, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called Mid-Autumn Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, and in some places it is also called May Festival.

Dragon Boat Race is an important activity of Dragon Boat Festival, which is very popular in southern China, especially in Guangdong, where it is called Dragon Boat Race. It was originally a ritual activity of the ancient Yue people to worship the water god or the dragon god, and its origin may have begun in primitive society. Dragon boat races have a long history, circulating for more than 2000 years. It is a traditional folk water sports and entertainment project in China, which is mostly held on festive festivals and is a multi-person collective rowing competition. After it was spread abroad, it was deeply loved by people all over the world and formed an international competition.

5. In the fifth flood season, in some rural areas of Shanghai and near the north bank of Hangzhou Bay, such as Fengxian and Nanhui, it is customary to call the Dragon Boat Festival "noon flood season".

6. The names of festivals in the sky come from the numbers of Yin and Yang. Tian Rucheng's Travel Notes on the West Lake, a volume of Yue in the 20th Ming Dynasty, said: "The Dragon Boat Festival is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and it is called the Mid-Autumn Festival because the sun reaches its highest point from noon to mid-autumn." Japan designated May 5th as "Boys' Day", which may also be based on the Japan-China Festival, because Japan believes that only men inherit the universal spirit.

7. Bathing Orchid Festival Dragon Boat Festival is in midsummer, which is a season with frequent skin diseases. The ancients bathed and decontaminated with Cao Lan soup. The Great Dai Li in the Han Dynasty said, "Wash blue soup in the afternoon".

8. Xiezong Festival When the ancients ate zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival, there was a game that was shorter than each person's leaves, and the elderly won, so it was also called Xiezong Festival.

9. Daughter's Day Shen Mingbang's "Ten Thousand Miscellanies": "May Daughter's Day is the Dragon Boat Festival, wearing mugwort leaves and five poisonous symbols. Ten thousand customs are decorated with little girls from the first day of May to the fifth day of May, and we do our best. Married women also go back to their hometown because it is called Daughter's Day. "

10. End etiquette is the baptism of hanging mugwort leaves on the door and bathing with mugwort leaves to repel mosquitoes on the fifth day of May when summer comes. It is believed that malaria can be driven away after baptism, and this mosquito breeding summer can be safely spent.

1 1. Dragon Boat Festival is not only an ancient totem festival, but also a festival of "getting rid of diseases and preventing epidemics". The ancients thought that "heavy noon" was a taboo day, when the five poisons were exhausted. Therefore, the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival is to ward off evil spirits and avoid poison, such as hanging calamus and mugwort leaves on the door, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Acorus Festival".

Historical origin

The word "Duan" means "the beginning", so "Duan Wu" means "the fifth day". According to the calendar, May is the noon month, so the Dragon Boat Festival has gradually become the Dragon Boat Festival. "Yanjing Age" records that "the fifth day of May is the transliteration of the word May." The legend of origin summarizes the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, which can be roughly described as follows.

1, from the theory of Yulan Festival

The ancients picked bluegrass in May, and bathed and detoxified bluegrass soup was popular. "Dai Dai"? Xia saw it. "Maybe ... boil plum for beans and save orchid for bath." Qu Yuan's Nine Songs? According to the cloud, "Mu Fanghua in the Bathing Orchid Hall picks clothes as a shadow". In the Chronicle of Jingchu, Liang people in the Southern Dynasties wrote: "May 5 is the Bathing Orchid Festival." This custom spread to the Tang and Song Dynasties, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival bathing orchid month.

Dai Dai Li Ji was selected by Dade, a famous etiquette scholar in the period of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, and it is a precious material for studying ancient society. If the Dragon Boat Festival appeared in the pre-Qin period, it has lasted for more than two thousand years.

2. The theory of "evil day"

People in the Han Dynasty thought that May 5th was a bad month and an unlucky day, and there was a custom of "not mentioning the son of May", that is, babies born on May 5th could not be raised by either sex. Once raised, men will harm their fathers and women will harm their mothers. There is even a saying that "the official will not move until May" and "it is bald to build a house in May". This custom has been popular from the Warring States period to the Han Dynasty at the latest. This custom is recorded in Lun Heng by Chong, Custom Tong by Ying Shao and the Book of the Later Han Dynasty.

The famous Meng Changjun in Historical Records and Biography of Meng Changjun was born on May 5th. His father begged his mother not to give birth. He thinks that "May is longer than Hu Qi, which is not good for his parents."

The lost article in "Custom Pass" said that having a baby on May 5th would harm father and daughter and mother.

Wang Chong, the author of Lun Heng, also recorded that "it is forbidden to kill parents in the first month, May and May." Wang Zhene, a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was born on the fifth day of May. His grandfather named him "Zhen Xie". Five students from Evonne, Song Huizong, have been fostered outside the palace since childhood. It can be seen that it is a common phenomenon to regard the fifth day of May as an evil day in ancient times. It can be seen that this day has been an unlucky day since the pre-Qin period. On this day, it is logical to insert calamus and mugwort to exorcise ghosts, smoke atractylodes macrocephala and angelica dahurica and drink realgar wine to avoid epidemic. Moreover, people also avoid the taboo of "Dragon Boat Festival" and call it "Dragon Boat Festival".

3. Remembering historical figures

(1) In memory of Qu Yuan

Qu Yuan

According to the historian Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng, Qu Yuan was a minister of Chu Huaiwang in the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated promoting talents, empowering them and making them rich, and urged them to unite against Qin. However, he was strongly opposed by Zilan and others, and Qu Yuan was expelled from the capital and exiled to the Yuanxiang Valley. During his exile, he wrote immortal poems such as Li Sao, Tian Wen and Tian Wen, which have a unique style and far-reaching influence (therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called the Poet's Day). In 278 BC, Qin Jun conquered Kyoto of Chu. Seeing that his motherland was invaded, Qu Yuan was heartbroken, but he was always reluctant to give up his motherland. On May 5th, after writing his masterpiece Huai Sha, he died in Miluo River and wrote a magnificent patriotic movement with his own life.

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were so sad that they flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to Qu Yuan. The fisherman paddled the boat and fished for his real body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out rice balls, eggs and other foods prepared for Qu Yuan and threw them into the river, saying that ichthyosaurs, shrimps and crabs were full and would not bite the doctor. People followed suit after seeing it. An old doctor took an altar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying that he would stun the dragon water beast with medicine so as not to hurt Dr. Qu. Later, people were afraid that rice balls would be eaten by dragons, so they came up with a way to develop zongzi by wrapping rice with neem leaves and wrapping it with colored silk.

After that, on the fifth day of May every year, there is the custom of dragon boat racing, eating zongzi and drinking realgar wine. In memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

(2) In memory of Wu Zixu.

Wu Zixu

The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is widely circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, commemorates Wu Zixu in the Spring and Autumn Period (770- 476 BC). Wu Zixu, a famous Chu national, and his father and brother were all killed by the King of Chu. Later, Zixu abandoned the dark and went to Wu to help Wu to attack Chu, and entered the capital city of Chu in the Five Wars. At that time, King Chu Ping was already dead. Zixu dug a grave and whipped 300 bodies to avenge his father's murder. After the death of He Lu, the king of Wu, his son Fu Cha succeeded to the throne. Wu Jun's morale was high and he was defeated by Yue. Gou Jian, the King of Yue, made peace, and Fu Cha agreed. Zi Xu suggested the complete elimination of Yue, but Fu Cha didn't listen. Wu was massacred and bought by the state of Yue. He was framed by slanderers. Fu Cha believed him and gave him a sword. Zi Xu died. Zixu, a loyal minister, feels like death. Before he died, he said to his neighbors, "After I die, I will gouge out my eyes and hang them on the east gate of Jason Wu, watching the Vietnamese army enter the city and destroy Wu." Then he killed himself. Fu Cha was furious after hearing this. On May 5th, he wrapped Zixu's body in leather and threw it into the river. Therefore, it is said that the Dragon Boat Festival is also a day to commemorate Wu Zixu.

(3) In memory of the filial daughter Cao E.

This sentence comes from Cao E tablet in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Cao E was a native of Shangyu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. His father drowned in the river and didn't see his body for several days. At that time, Cao E, the filial daughter, was only fourteen years old, crying day and night by the river. 17 days later, he threw himself into the river on May 5, and fished out his father's body five days later.

4. Dragon Sacrifice Totem Theory

This view of dragon comes from Wen Yiduo's Dragon Boat Festival Examination and Dragon Boat Festival History Education. He believed that the fifth day of May was the day when the "Dragon" tribe in ancient wuyue held totem sacrifices. The main reasons are:

(1) Eating zongzi and running are the two most important activities of the Dragon Boat Festival. Zongzi is often stolen by dragons when thrown into the water, and dragon boats are used for competitions.

(2) The relationship between Du Jing and ancient wuyue is particularly profound. In addition, Wu and Yue people have the custom of constantly tattooing "dragon-like".

(3) The ancient folk custom of "tying the arm with colored silk" on the fifth day of May should be a relic of the tattoo custom of "Like a dragon".

5. Solstice theory from summer.

The founder of the summer solstice theory is Mr. Huang Shi. 1963, in his book History of the Customs and Habits of the Dragon Boat Festival (published by Hong Kong Qinxing Bookstore 1963), he proposed that the Dragon Boat Festival originated in ancient times, with three generations flowing in parallel, and expanded into rivers in Qin and Han Dynasties and lakes and seas in Tang and Song Dynasties.

The Dragon Boat Festival originated from the summer solstice theory, and scholars have studied it from a broader perspective. 1983, Mr. Liu Deqian thought that the Dragon Boat Festival came from the summer solstice in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties in another article, On the Origin of Dragon Boat Festival (Knowledge of Literature and History, No.5, 1983), and proposed that Qu Yuan had nothing to do with "fighting a hundred herbs" or "collecting miscellaneous medicines" during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Liu Deqian put forward three main reasons in The Origin of Dragon Boat Festival and Interesting Talk about Traditional Festivals in China:

(1) The authoritative book Jing Chu Sui Ji did not mention the festival custom of eating zongzi on the fifth day of May, but wrote it on the summer solstice. As for the race, Du Taiqing's Jade Candle Collection in Sui Dynasty listed it as an entertainment activity from summer to the sun, which shows that it is not necessarily to salvage Qu Yuan, a great poet who threw himself into the river.

(2) Some contents in the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as "stepping on a hundred herbs", "fighting a hundred herbs" and "picking herbs", have nothing to do with Qu Yuan.

(3) The first explanation of the Dragon Boat Festival in Ji Huali is: "The sun shines, and the Dragon Boat Festival is in midsummer, so it can also be called midsummer festival.

Therefore, the earliest origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is the summer solstice.

At the international academic conference held in Seoul, South Korea from June 5 to April 38, 2006, Mr. He, a researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of China Academy of Social Sciences, once again perfected the summer theory and put forward the view that the Dragon Boat Festival is summer.

6. Dragon Boat Festival 10 said

One said that the Dragon Boat Festival is a dragon festival. Wen Yiduo's textual research on the Dragon Boat Festival shows that the Dragon Boat Festival is a totem festival held in ancient wuyue, and it is actually a Dragon Boat Festival.

The second theory holds that the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet of Chu State. According to Qi Xuheng, Qu Yuan died in the Miluo River on the fifth day of May. On this day, Chu people threw rice into the river with bamboo tubes to mourn.

According to the Book of Rites, the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the orchid bath in the Zhou Dynasty.

According to these four theories, the Dragon Boat Festival recorded by Cai Yong in Cao Qin in the Eastern Han Dynasty is a memorial to the sages.

Cai Yong

According to five theories, the Dragon Boat Festival published by Song Gaocheng originated in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Gou Jian, the king of Yue, practiced the water army every day.

According to the sixth theory, Liang Zonggu's Chronicle of Jingzhou Age tells about the Dragon Boat Festival in order to welcome Wu Zixu, the Taoist God. The Book of Were Han also wrote that Zhejiang wished Cao to dance on the Cao 'e River on the fifth day of May to welcome Wu Zixu. Later, people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang held various counter-current ceremonies to mourn Wu Zixu during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Seven said that the book records that the fifth day of May is the day of ancestor worship.

According to Records of Historical Records and Biography of Huo Zhi, the Dragon Boat Festival was held to commemorate Cao E's death in search of his father and his suicide in the river.

According to Jiu Shuo, the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the summer solstice festival in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. At that time, it was midsummer, and everything flourished from summer to Japan, and there was nothing to be afraid of. Therefore, on the fifth day of May, five-color seals were used as portals to punish evil spirits. Legend has it that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from Husha Lake in Mianyang, Hubei Province. Four heroes who robbed the rich and helped the poor were besieged by local officers and soldiers on the fifth day of May and drowned in the river. The local people were very sad and designated this day as the Dragon Boat Festival to show their condolences.

Generally speaking, the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the ancient ancestors' choice of "Dragon Ascending to Heaven" as an auspicious day to worship the dragon ancestors, and injected the seasonal fashion of "eliminating diseases and preventing epidemics" in summer. Dragon Boat Festival is considered as an "evil moon day", which originated in the northern part of the Central Plains to commemorate Qu Yuan and other historical figures. The formation of the Dragon Boat Festival custom can be said to be the product of the integration of North and South customs.