Dragon Boat Festival
01 · Historical Records
Records in the local gazetteers have continued unbroken since the Ming dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Jiaxing Duanwu is an important folk activity of the traditional festival, originating in the commemoration of Wu Zixu, the famous general of the state of Wu at the end of the Spring and Autumn period. The people of Jiaxing have the saying "on the fifth day of the fifth month, we welcome Lord Wu in season," and accordingly they hold activities such as sacrifices to Wu Zixu. The festival is grand and the customs diverse, forming the unique character of Jiaxing Duanwu. The main activities include: grand sacrifices to Wu Zixu; dragon boat races and fast-boat rowing contests on South Lake; and, besides the folk wrapping of zongzi, folk customs such as hanging calamus and mugwort, burning atractylodes and angelica as fumigants, wearing sachets, eating the "five yellows" (cucumber, yellow croaker, yellow eel, yellow mud egg, i.e. salted duck egg, and realgar wine), eating the "five whites" (white liquor, "white ao," white cabbage, sliced white pork and white-cut chicken), and eating stewed eggs.
Welcoming Lord Wu at the shrine
Offerings are set before the shrine of Lord Wu, incense is burnt in order of seniority, and the crowd circles the temple before the racing begins.
Boat racing on Nanhu Lake
The open waters of Nanhu suit fast rowing; boats line up, drums sound and the whole fleet surges forward before crowded banks.
The quay-side quick-boat contest
Narrow quick-boats race in the canals, judged on the rowers’ synchrony rather than the boat’s speed.
Five yellows, five whites and eggs in the doorway
A table of five yellow and five white dishes, with eggs boiled on the threshold and dyed red for children.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The sacrificial rites of Jiaxing Duanwu are fixed at two places: the Wuxiang Temple and South Lake. Wu Zixu was a famous general of the state of Wu at the end of the Spring and Autumn period; folklore links his death with the tidal signs of the Qiantang River, hence the saying among the people of Jiaxing about welcoming Lord Wu in season on the fifth day of the fifth month, and the sacrificial rites are mostly performed before the temple. The dragon boats are set on the open waters of South Lake, while the custom of rowing fast boats takes place between the Grand Canal and the city's waterways, the boats being smaller but the crews denser, winning on uniformity. The water network around South Lake is interconnected; during races the spectators stand on the embankments on both banks, and boats moored at the piers must give way even when setting out onto the water. In the city of Jiaxing the Duanwu diet is a world of its own, with the "five yellows" and "five whites" set side by side; stewed eggs are mostly cooked on the thresholds of doorways, playing on the pun of "receiving the heat together." Jiaxing lies in the Taihu Lake basin with dense waterways, and many Duanwu practices grow out of the watery terrain: racing must wait for the surface of South Lake to be calm, and the early morning while the thin mist has not yet dispersed is best for light, swift boats, so the boats mostly set off before noon; as the lake grows warmer in the afternoon, the spectators move to the shade of the trees and the tea sheds on the shore and chat all day. The prefectural city and the county towns, Jiashan and Pinghu, and the Haining area each have their own acknowledged prime grounds, and races mostly do not cross boundaries; local boat teams and local audiences are naturally one body, and watching races also carries a sense of hometown honor. In recent years many places in Jiaxing have combined bringing dragon boats onto campuses and into scenic areas with exhibitions of traditional crafts, the race regulations gradually aligning with those of other places, while the sacrificial rites continue as before under the charge of clan elders. The Duanwu diet of Jiaxing is also tied to the products of the water country: among the five yellows, yellow croaker and yellow eel are taken from the rivers and lakes; among the five whites, white liquor comes from the distilleries, and white-cut chicken and sliced white pork from the neighborhood butchers' blocks. These things are not gathered together on ordinary days, but by the tenth day before Duanwu signboards are hung out along the river, and prices at the fish markets and butchers' blocks at the piers rise accordingly — the most concentrated festival business in the whole city.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Its unique traditional festival activities of the Jiangnan water country carry on the long-standing tradition of folk Duanwu customs in the Taihu Lake basin and have important historical and folkloric value.
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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