On the origin of the name of Dragon Boat Festival

On the origin of the name of Dragon Boat Festival

There are more than 20 names of the Dragon Boat Festival, among which the origin is involved, mainly including Dragon Boat Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Dila Festival and Quyuan Festival. Through the name, we can know that there are three main reasons for the Dragon Boat Festival. The following are three explanations of the origin of the name of the Dragon Boat Festival that I carry with me, hoping to help you.

Many people are curious about why the Dragon Boat Festival is called Dragon Boat Festival. Next, I would like to introduce you to three statements about the origin of the name of the Dragon Boat Festival. Welcome to refer to.

Why is the Dragon Boat Festival called Dragon Boat Festival?

Report 1

May is a poisonous month, the fifth is a poisonous day, the fifth is a poisonous time at noon, and it is at the end of the three poisons. The Dragon Boat Festival is also called "the end of May".

Statement 2

Dragon Boat Festival, also called Dragon Boat Festival, is one of the biggest traditional festivals in China. "Duan" means the same as "Chu", and calling "Duan Wu" is just like calling "the fifth day"; The word "five" in the Dragon Boat Festival is also connected with "noon". According to the order of earthly branches, May is "noon" month. Because noon is the "sun", the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duanyang". On May 5th, both the month and the day are five, so calling five is also called noon.

Statement 3

Dragon Boat Festival, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, is also called Duanyang Festival, Chongwu Festival, Chongwu Festival, Tianzhong Festival and Tianchang Festival. Ending means "beginning" and "beginning". The fifth day can be called Dragon Boat Festival. In the lunar calendar, the earthly branch marks the moon, the first month is cloudy, February is the base, and it is noon in turn from May, so May is called noon month, and the fifth day of May is called Dragon Boat Festival. Looking at the Dragon Boat Festival from historical records, the word "Dragon Boat Festival" was first seen in the local custom of Zhou Dynasty in Jin Dynasty: "Dragon Boat Festival in midsummer, cooking millet". In the Tang Dynasty, because Xuanzong was born on August 5, Song Jing officially changed the Dragon Boat Festival to Dragon Boat Festival in order to please the emperor and avoid the taboo of the word "five".

Further reading

The Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the third traditional festival after the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, which has been handed down by our ancestors for thousands of years. This major festival contains a very important commemorative significance, and the whole country is celebrating and beaming, which is of great significance. To this end, the state has specially stipulated that in recent years, like the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, there will be a special festival to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival!

According to the research of China folklorists, there are many opinions about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as: in memory of Qu Yuan; In memory of Wu Zixu's theory; In memory of Cao E; From the three generations of summer solstice festival; The theory of exorcising evil days on the moon, the theory of national totem sacrifice in wuyue and so on. Each of the above has its own source. According to more than 100 ancient books and archaeological studies by experts listed in Wen Yiduo's Dragon Boat Festival Examination and Dragon Boat Festival History Education, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is a totem festival held by Wuyue people in the ancient south of China, earlier than Qu Yuan. But for thousands of years, the Dragon Boat Festival was specially set up to commemorate the great ancient poet Qu Yuan. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China, Qu Yuan, a great patriotic poet, was famous at home and abroad for his famous sentence "I will go up and down to seek". Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been deeply rooted in people's hearts, so people "regret and comment on the world and pass it on from generation to generation". Therefore, the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan has the widest and deepest influence and occupies the mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, China people associate dragon boat racing and eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival with commemorating Qu Yuan.

Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival, which started in China during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and has a history of more than 2,000 years. There are many legends about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. Here, based on a large number of literature and history materials, only the following four kinds are introduced for readers.

Starting with the memory of 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 the use of talents, empowerment, and prosperity, and advocated joint resistance to Qin, which was strongly opposed by others. Qu Yuan was forced to leave his post, was driven out of the capital and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang river basins. 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. Mr. Guo Moruo, a great modern writer in China, once created and adapted a large-scale historical drama and film Qu Yuan, which artistically reproduced the glorious image of this great poet and revealed the great significance of commemorating Qu Yuan on the Dragon Boat Festival in May, with far-reaching influence!

From Wu Zixu's memory. The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which spread 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.

The third legend of Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the filial daughter Cao E who saved her drowning father in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 23-220). Cao E was a native of Shangyu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Her father drowned in the river and didn't see her 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 also threw himself into the river on May 5, and fished out his father's body five days later. This was passed down as a myth, and then to the governor of the county government, who made it a monument for disciple Han Danchun to make a eulogy. The tomb of the filial daughter is in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province today, and there is a monument made by Jin. Later, in order to commemorate Cao E's filial piety, Cao E Temple was built where Cao E threw himself into the river. The village where she lived was renamed Cao E Town, and the place where Cao E died was named Cao E River.

Totem sacrifice originated from the ancient Yue nationality. A large number of cultural relics unearthed in modern times and archaeological studies have confirmed that in the Neolithic age, there was a cultural relic with geometric prints and pottery ruins in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. According to experts' inference, the clan of this relic is a' tribe' that worships dragon totem in history-Baiyue nationality. The decorative patterns and historical legends on unearthed pottery show that they have the custom of tattooing constantly, live in a water town and compare themselves to the descendants of dragons. Among its production tools, there are a large number of stone tools, as well as small bronzes such as shovels and chisels. As daily necessities, the printed pottery ding used for cooking food is unique to them and is one of the symbols of their ethnic group. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still more than 100 Vietnamese people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was a festival for their ancestors. During thousands of years of historical development, most Baiyue people have integrated into the Han nationality, and the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival has become a festival for the whole Chinese nation.

No matter what the origin and legend are, the Dragon Boat Festival, as a tradition of more than 2,000 years, has been deeply rooted and preserved. Today, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular grand festival in China. On the basis of retaining traditional customs, absorbing the essence, eliminating the dross, keeping pace with the times, has also given new content and spirit of the times. Let China's long-standing traditional culture and excellent folk customs continue to be carried forward, and let foreign advanced cultures such as Father's Day, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day be introduced and integrated with China's national culture. We will unswervingly follow the correct policy of "making the past serve the present, making foreign things serve China, letting a hundred flowers blossom and bringing forth the new", and everyone will practice socialism.

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