Dragon Boat Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Xu Qixie Ji and the Jingchu Suishi Ji record that after the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties, the Dragon Boat Festival came to be combined with the commemoration of Qu Yuan. Beginning in the Ming dynasty, farmers in Zigui spontaneously organized the “Saotan Poetry Society”, reciting Chu ci poetry or composing fu at the Dragon Boat Festival and echoing one another's verses, a practice unique among Dragon Boat Festival customs throughout China.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
“Five-five (in the lunar calendar), we spend Duanwu.” The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation. In the fifteenth year of the Yuanhe era of the Tang dynasty, Wang Maoyuan, the prefect of Guizhou, built a Qu Yuan shrine on Qu Yuan Tuo in Zigui, the hometown of Qu Yuan, and wrote a memorial address; local villagers and dragon boats of every description gathered there as the starting point for the dragon boat races, forming the distinctive character of the Dragon Boat folk customs of Qu Yuan's hometown. This folk custom has continued to the present day in Qu Yuan's hometown, becoming a tradition. The Dragon Boat folk customs of Qu Yuan's hometown are both solemn and joyous, and in general the festival is celebrated three times. On the fifth day of the fifth month, the Little Duanwu, people hang calamus and mugwort and drink realgar wine; on the fifteenth day of the fifth month, the Great Duanwu features dragon boat races; and on the twenty-fifth day of the fifth month, the Final Duanwu sees the sending off of the epidemic boat and the reunion of relatives and friends. The commemoration of Qu Yuan runs through all the festival activities, including setting up altars and offering sacrifices, touring the river, dragon boat races, expressing feelings through zongzi, and neighborhood “evening revels” (naowan); the Duanwu folk process is thereby made more complete, compact and vivid. It proclaims and spreads the spirit and character of Qu Yuan, one of the outstanding representatives of Chinese literati, and the traditional spirit of Chinese culture; making the traditional veneration of ancestors and of heroes more human and more entertaining, it strengthens the cohesion and cultural identity of the nation. At the same time, this festival folk custom has also transmitted the Chu ci and other forms of folk cultural expression, and possesses rich cultural connotations.
Three passes of the festival
The fifth, fifteenth and twenty-fifth of the fifth month each carry their own rite, from hanging herbs to racing boats to sending off the plague ship.
Altar at the bend of Qu Yuan
An altar is set at the bend where Qu Yuan is said to have gone, a slow river procession follows, and the poetry society chants Chu lyrics in antiphon.
Boat racing and the poetry gathering
All boats gather at the shrine to start the race, and in the afternoon the poetry society answers each other’s recitation from the banks.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Duanwu festival of Qu Yuan's hometown, centered on Zigui, is celebrated in three installments — the small Duanwu, the great Duanwu and the final Duanwu — making it the longest-span arrangement in the national sequence of Duanwu customs. The stretch of river at the Qu Yuan shrine and Qu Yuan Tuo is the start and finish of the races; the mountains on both banks squeeze the river into a narrow channel, so boats reaching this point must strive to take the lead. The riverside villages of Qu Yuan's hometown, Zigui and Xiangxi set up altars year after year, and villages compete with one another in the colors, forms and drumbeats of their dragon boats. In the countryside of the county, old customs are still kept of hanging mugwort and calamus at the door, drinking realgar wine, and wrapping zongzi to send far away; before and after Duanwu people visit relatives and friends and hold evening revels and operas, interwoven with the ceremonies commemorating Qu Yuan.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Dragon Boat folk customs of Qu Yuan's hometown both carry on the epidemic-dispelling content of the traditional Duanwu custom and, even more, preserve the people of the hometown's praise and remembrance of Qu Yuan's spirit and character. The Dragon Boat folk customs of Qu Yuan's hometown are a living witness to the ancient Chu culture of remote antiquity, to Duanwu rituals and the like, and have research value in many respects, including outlook on life, values, history, psychology and anthropology.
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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