Quyuan Legend
01 · Historical Records
Qu Yuan was a great patriotic poet of China, said to have been born at Lepingli in Zigui of the state of Chu, present-day Zigui in Hubei. Around his birth, his official career, his exile and his drowning himself in the river many moving stories and legends have been handed down among the people for generations; the Jin-dynasty Yu Zhongyong's Record of Jingzhou already records Qu Yuan's dwelling and the temple of Wu Xu, showing that the Qu Yuan legend was already fairly current before the Jin. The legend is known to every household in the Zigui area and is one of the most representative folk legends of the locality.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Qu Yuan was a great patriotic poet of China. Within Zigui county in Hubei, centred on Lepingli, Qu Yuan's birthplace, and extending to the townships of Guizhou, Zhouping, Shazhenxi and Xietan, many moving stories and beautiful legends about Qu Yuan circulate. The Jin-dynasty Yu Zhongyong's Record of Jingzhou records that Zigui county had Qu Yuan's dwelling and the temple of Wu Xu, the washing stone still surviving, showing that the Qu Yuan legend was already fairly current before the Jin. The legend is rich in subject, including figure legends, place-name legends, scenery legends and custom legends. The national feeling, local feeling and family feeling that it chiefly portrays also help to build a harmonious society. The legend both recalls a historical figure and takes in the people's reverence for loyalty and patriotism, with a rich colour of Chu culture. The Qu Yuan legend and the Dragon Boat Festival customs depend on each other and are a typical representative of the fusion of folk literature and folk culture in the Chu region.
The Legend of Qu Yuan's Birth
The story of Qu Yuan's birth current in the Lepingli area of Zigui.
The Legend of His Drowning and the Dragon Boat Festival Custom
Legends connected with Qu Yuan's drowning and such customs as dragon-boat racing and eating zongzi.
The Qu Yuan Commemorative Tradition of Zigui
The distinctive tradition of sacrificing to and commemorating Qu Yuan in the Zigui area.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Qu Yuan legend takes Lepingli in Zigui county as its centre, extending to the townships of Guizhou, Zhouping, Shazhenxi and Xietan and interwoven with the hills, waters, scenery and Dragon Boat Festival customs of the Three Gorges area, forming an area of circulation centred on Qu Yuan's native place.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
So far ninety-one Qu Yuan legends have been collected; the stories are intensely emotional and soul-stirring, marvellous and romantic, rich in imagination and profound in meaning. The legend has a certain reference value for artistic creation and helps the study of cultural anthropology, folklore, psychology and aesthetics. In recent years the Qu Yuan legend has faced a crisis of broken transmission, shown mainly in that most of those who told the Qu Yuan legends have died or are growing old and transmitters are lacking. The legend is closely bound up with such Dragon Boat Festival customs as dragon-boat racing and eating zongzi, forming a distinctive tradition of Qu Yuan sacrifice and commemoration in the Zigui area, and is important material for studying Chu folklore and Qu Yuan culture.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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