It’s that time of year again!
The Lunar Calendar’s fifth day of the fifth month!
Yup, its dragon boat festival time!
Eating Zongzi, drinking pesticide and best of all, taking a four day weekend!
Most people Eastern and Western kind of know the basics of the story,
a dude died, people make rice cakes and enjoy a long weekend. But not many people know the true story.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing… Qu Yuan!
Qu Yuan was born in approximately 384BC, in the area of China which is now known Hubei.
Aside from the fact he was born into an aristocratic family,
not much is known about Qui Yuan’s childhood.
As an adult he demonstrated he had an excellent memory and excelled in the art of diplomacy.
He was so well regarded for highly developed skills
that he was appointed Left Minister to King Hui during the incredible complex and convoluted warring states period.
As Left Minister it was Qu’s duty to advise the King
on domestic affairs and royal orders as well as entertaining guests and ministers from other states.
Qu Yuan loved his kingdom
and was devastated to discover that government was becoming increasingly corrupted.
After the death of King Hui, the new king, Qingxiang
appointed his brother to role of prime minister and exiled him to lands the south of Yangtze River.
It was during his exile that Qu Yuan began writing poetry.
In total Qu wrote twenty-five noteworthy poems
which mostly focused on his frustrations and despair with the increasing decline of his beloved kingdom.
His sad prose poetry was so well regarded that it defined an entirely new style of Chinese Poetry entitled “Chuci”.
Arguably his poem which is most representative of the style is titled “Sorrow after Departure” which goes a little something like this….
During his time in exile,
Qu grew increasingly depressed at the now burgeoning downfall of his homeland
so much so that he could no longer stand the emotional despair and decided to end it all.
He completed his magnum opus titled "Lament for Ying"
and then picked up a rock and waded into the Miliuo River and committed suicide.
From here is where the legend of the Dragon Boat Festival begins…
When people saw Qu Yuan kill himself
they immediately took their “boats” to the river and “raced” to find his body.
People also threw rice into the river to prevent fish from trying to eat him.
To fend off the water dragon who apparently lived in the river,
an old doctor threw in a bottle of wine to get it drunk.
According to the Official Beijing Government website,
a dragon like fish floated to the surface with a piece of Qu Yuan’s clothing in its whisker.
Yes, the Beijing Government website, talks about Dragons, that’s awesome!
What the website doesn't mention though,
is that after a few days, Qu come back as a ghost!
Because apparently dragons are fine, but ghosts are impossible…
Anyway some time later, Qu’s ghost appears before his friends.
He told them that he died by drowning not by dragon
asks them to prepare wrap gluttonous rice up in silk packages as an offering to the water dragon.
These rice packages, now traditionally wrapped in bamboo leaves are what we call Zongzi.
To commemorate the extreme patriotism and revolutionary poetry styles of Qu Yuan the Day of his death,
became what we now know as the Dragon boat Festival.
As this is an ancient story, details about how the story went down
and even details regarding who the festival is celebrating changes,
but Qu Yuan is popularly considered the true precursor.
The Festival does not just exist in China,
in fact, many countries throughout Asia celebrate the Dragon boat Festival.
Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam all join in on the festivities .
In China it is traditions directly linked to the legend of Qu Yuan
include eating the dragon’s offering, zongzi, drinking the spirit that killed the dragon,
regale wine (which actually contains trace amounts of arsenic, it was used as pestircide),
seriously do yourself a favour, don’t drink it.
And finally in honour of those who searched Qu Yuan race dragon boats in competition.
The sport of dragon boat racing has become so popular that it is practised around the world!
In China the annual winners of the race are awarded with the prestigious Qu Yuan Cup.
This is honestly the thing I love most about Chinese history,
there are so many weird stories about strange yet amazing people.
A man from 300 BC, wrote genre defining poetry, kills himself, gets a dragon killed,
comes back as ghost and it is a nationally recognised and agreed upon festival!
Also, luckily for me, since 2008, the Dragon Boat Festival has become an official public holiday, which means I can spend my weekend getting drunk in the bathtub!
Also, luckily for me, since 2008, the Dragon Boat Festival has become an official public holiday,
So there you have it. Thank you so much for watching another one of my videos,
don’t forget to like comment and subscribe!
If this is the first video of mine that you have seen, welcome!
And be sure to click on the link to check my other history videos,
the previous video was on Hong Xiuquan,
Jesus’ Chinese Brother led the bloodiest event of modern history!
Thanks again for watching, I’m WooKong, and goodbye.