The origin of dragon boat!

The Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan are widely popular dragon boat racing (also known as the dragon boat race) of the festival customs. Zhang Jianfeng, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, described the enthusiastic scenes of dragon boat races in his Song of Racing, which reads, "The drums beat three times and the red flag opens, and the two dragons leap out of the floating water. The two dragons jumped out of the floating water. Anchorage shadows and waves flew with ten thousand swords, and the drums split the waves with a thousand thunderbolts". The way of dragon boat racing varies from place to place and is very colorful.

Why do we race dragon boats on the Dragon Boat Festival, that is to say, how did dragon boat racing originate in the end? There are many different opinions on this.

In honor of Chu patriotic poet Qu Yuan, this is the most common saying. Folk legend has it that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, the local people salvaged the river, until the Dongting Lake has not seen the body. At this time, is meeting the pouring rain, the lake fishing boats scramble back to shore. Fishermen heard that the people on the shore want to ferry to the lake to look for patriotic ministers, will be the first to help each other, which is the origin of the dragon boat race. After that, every year on May 5, dragon boats were rowed to commemorate him, in order to disperse the fish in the river, so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. Liang dynasty wu jun "continued qi harmonious record" has recorded: "chu dafu qu yuan by slander, is the day (the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar) cast miluo river death, chu people mourn, is to save the oars. Duanyang race, is the legacy of custom." Other historical records also see many similar statements.

Others have commemorated King Goujian said. History shows that in order to avenge the destruction of King Wu Fu-chai, King Goujian led the people to play in the name of the boat race, and maneuvering the water division, secretly practicing water warfare. There is also a memorial to Wu Zixu, a great general of Wu. Wu Zixu was slandered by a sycophant and killed by King Fu-chai of Wu, and his body was put into a leather bag and thrown into the Qiantang River, which followed the waves without sinking. When the tide at the mouth of the Qiantang River turned, the people drove their boats along with the tide in the hope of seeing Wu Zixu's spirit. There is also a saying that commemorates the drowning of a filial daughter, Kusuo E, who went into the river to look for her father's body during the Eastern Han Dynasty. There is also a saying that it commemorates Jie Zi Tui.

But all of the above statements, most of the later in order to commemorate the ancestors to be attached. The origin of the dragon boat race, the following explanation is more scientific, more reasonable.

According to modern scholars, the Dragon Boat Festival and the origin of the Dragon Boat Race has three kinds of claims.

One is that the Dragon Boat Race is a sacrifice to the Dragon Totem. Mr. Wen Yiduo in the "Dragon Boat Festival" said: "Dragon Boat Festival is the Wuyue nation held a totem sacrifice festival, and the dragon boat race is the ritual of semi-religious, semi-entertainment festival." The primitive society of the water tribal people, in order to resist the threat of flooding, respect the imaginary powerful dragon as their ancestors and protection of God, the boat built in the shape of a dragon, painted with a dragon pattern, held every year in the Dragon Boat Race, in order to show respect for the dragon, and at the same time show that they are the descendants of the dragon, descendants of the dragon. According to the examination, the dragon boat in the Western Zhou Zhou Mu Wang already have. For example, a man standing on a dragon boat is depicted on a painting on silk from a Chu tomb of the Warring States period unearthed in Changsha, Hunan Province.

The second is that the Dragon Boat Festival originated on the evil day. The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar was an evil day in ancient folklore. Ancient people in the summer there are many customs to drive away the epidemic, are due to the fifth of May this "bad month", "bad day", like the corner of corn (dumplings) to throw the river, is a kind of witchcraft practice. Since the Dragon Boat Festival did not originate in honor of Qu Yuan, then, the dragon boat race has nothing to do with this.

Thirdly, it is thought that dragon boat racing is a summer solstice entertainment. Some people think that the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival should be the summer solstice. The reason is, in the "Jing Chu chronicle", the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival does not eat zongzi, while eating zongzi is in the summer solstice. Sui Du Taiqing in the book "jade candle treasure canon", said the race is a summer solstice recreational activities.

Most of China's traditional customary festivals have gone through a process of development from simple to complex. The Dragon Boat Festival is a dragon festival, but also the evil month of the taboo, the origin is very early, later generations will commemorate the Qu Yuan and so on attached to it, so that the Dragon Boat Festival and the Dragon Boat Race to become a composite folk festival contains a variety of meanings.