Dragon Boat Festival
01 · Historical Records
The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival has many legends, such as commemorating Qu Yuan's drowning himself in the river, taboos arising from the "poison day" of the fifth day of the fifth month, King Goujian of Yue training his navy, commemorating Wu Zixu's throwing himself into the Qiantang River, and Cao E rescuing her father. These accounts were elaborated over successive generations and combined with the folk activities of Duanwu, thus forming a festival of the Chinese nation. The Dragon Boat Festival originated in folk custom, and many of its activities are wholesome and uplifting.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, also called Chongwu, Duanwu and Pu Festival, held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. "Duan" carries the sense of "beginning," hence the fifth day is called duanwu (beginning five). In the Xia calendar (the lunar calendar) the first month is designated yin; in the sequence of the earthly branches, the fifth month happens to be the wu month, and since the ancients often called the fifth day a "wu day," duanwu is also known as chongwu (double wu). The main activities of the Dragon Boat Festival are: 1. commemorating historical figures; 2. rowing dragon boats; 3. eating zongzi; 4. various practices for guarding against the five poisons (pasting Duanwu talisman paper-cuts, hanging mugwort and calamus, wearing sachets and other apotropaic objects, and bathing in orchid water); 5. games, such as grass-dueling, ball hitting and willow shooting. The main implements and products associated with the Dragon Boat Festival include dragon boats, zongzi, pictures of the five poisons, mugwort and calamus, portraits of Zhong Kui, portraits of Zhang Tianshi and portraits of Qu Yuan. With social progress, the Dragon Boat Festival has gradually developed into a traditional festival of rich content, with strong vitality. Dragon boat rowing and the eating of zongzi have been well preserved within the festival and have developed soundly. In view of this, the other cultural expressions of the Dragon Boat Festival should be given scientific guidance, so that the people's festival culture activities may become richer. The Duanwu calendar is strung together in different regions by three main tasks: hanging mugwort and calamus at the door, wearing sachets and drinking realgar to ward off poison; wrapping and eating zongzi to answer to the season; and dragon boat racing to settle victory. Hanging at the door and wearing sachets belong to hygienic custom: sachets are mostly filled with mugwort leaves, calamus, patchouli or atractylodes, serving at once to fumigate against mosquitoes and to repel insects; realgar wine is mostly used to dot children's foreheads and to sprinkle on the doorway, and painting five-poison talismans and hanging portraits of Zhong Kui are of the same intent. In the matter of racing, wherever the dragon boats gather on a stretch of water, there is the festival ground: boats are built either long and narrow or with square cabins, and carry a helmsman, a drummer and a flag bearer; before setting out they first sacrifice to the water deity or to Qu Yuan, and at the sound of the drum they race out of the port. Zongzi fillings differ greatly from place to place: Jiangnan mostly uses bean paste and fresh meat, the Huguang region wraps fish, cured meat and salted egg yolks, while Lingnan has alkaline-water zongzi and chicken-stuffed zongzi, the shapes also divided into triangles, square pillows and ox horns. In addition, Duanwu includes games of the kind of grass-dueling, ball hitting and willow shooting, mostly seen in the youth grounds of the water country of Jiangnan.
Hanging mugwort and wearing sachets
Mugwort and calamus at the gate, sachets at the waist, talisman slips pasted on the wall: the whole array is meant to repel insects and poison.
Wrapping and eating zongzi
Glutinous rice and fillings are wrapped in leaf or reed sheaths, each region having its own fillings, shapes and colours, and zongzi are carried to relatives as gifts.
Dragon boat racing and the drummer
Boats with helmsmen, drummers and pennants race after a water-spirit or Qu Yuan offering; the first to the far marker wins.
Grass fighting, ball play and willow shooting
Children play hook-and-pull with grass stems and strike at willow targets, competing in groups on the festival afternoon.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Dragon Boat Festival has spread throughout the country, and is distributed mainly across the broad Han regions, while ethnic minorities such as the Zhuang, Buyei, Dong, Tujia and Gelao also celebrate this festival. Choices about the same festival differ markedly from place to place: Jiangnan emphasizes boat racing and sachets; the Shan-Shaan region emphasizes inserting mugwort at the door, pasting talismans and wearing fragrance; Guangdong and southern Fujian treat Duanwu as a peak water festival season, and overseas Chinese communities further use dragon boats to connect their fellow-countrymen's feelings to Southeast Asia; while in the water country of Suzhou and Shanghai, the dragon boats, zongzi and "five yellows and five whites" of Duanwu have been fixed into an annual family routine.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Dragon Boat Festival is of great value for the study of the development of folk custom, and because it is a festival shared by many ethnic groups and contains transnational customs, it is also of important value for the study of ethnic cultural exchange, international cultural communication, traditional sports competition and food culture.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tan Guozheng 05-2970
- Liu Guisheng 05-2971
- Xiang Fuchang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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