The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional festival on the mainland, which has a long history of tradition. The Dragon Boat Festival, which originated in the pre-Qin era, began to flourish on both sides of the Yangtze River from the Han Dynasty.
Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival, which literally has the names of Duan Wu, Zhong Wu, And Zhong Wu, is literally the beginning, and the seventh horse of the Twelve Lands Branch is used for timekeeping.
The fifth month of the lunar calendar is the noon month, the five and noon are homophonous, and the five and five are heavy, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the heavy noon festival or the heavy five festivals. This title is similar to the traditional festivals such as the First New Year's Day of the first lunar month, the Shangwei Festival on the third day of March, the Seven Beggars Festival in early July, and the Nine Chongyang Festival in early September.
Duanwu is the fifth day of the first month, and the fifth month of the lunar calendar is also the noon moon, and the "Duanwu" slowly evolved into the "Dragon Boat Festival". The fifth month of the lunar calendar is midsummer, and the "Jingchu Chronicle" records that because of the midsummer ascent, Shunyang is on the top, and the first noon day of May is the day when the weather in Shunyang is ascended, so the first five days of May are also known as the Duanyang Festival.
In addition, there are many names for this day of the Dragon Boat Festival: DuanWu Festival, Duanyang Festival, Chongwu Festival, Chongwu Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Summer Festival, May Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Yulan Festival, Calamus Festival, Xiezong Festival, Qu Yuan Day, Daughter's Day, etc.
Dragon Boat Festival
The earliest record of the customs of may 5 and the Dragon Boat Festival is found in this sentence in the Book of Rites: "On the 5th of May, the orchid is stored for bathing." "After the Qin Dynasty, the Dragon Boat Festival, the customs of the southern and northern regions were further integrated, and the main customs were to avoid evil and avoid disasters.
The Tang Dynasty Dragon Boat Festival customs became more and more abundant on the basis of inheriting the previous dynasty. The Tang Dynasty Duan Chengshi notebook novel collection "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks" records: "Northern women, five days into the five hours of the map, five hours of flowers, Shi Zhi's account." It is a long life strand that is like a rope knot, and it is all carried by human portraits. "The custom of forming a human form with silk thread and wearing it for decoration to ward off evil spirits continued until the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The custom of making zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival has been passed down to this day, and it has a deep relationship with the commemoration of Qu Yuan. Zongzi, in ancient times, there were also different names such as rice, horned millet, and barrel dumplings, and the earliest documentary records about zongzi originated from Wu Jun's "Records of Continuing Qi Harmony" of Southern Liang.
Legend has it that Qu Yuan died in the early May of the Miluo River, and the people of the Chu state remembered him and took bamboo tubes to store rice and throw water at him on this day of each year. Later, the way of storing rice in bamboo tubes was gradually replaced by the way of wrapping rice dumpling leaves.
In the Jin Dynasty, Zongzi was officially designated as the Food of the Dragon Boat Festival. At this time, in addition to glutinous rice, the raw materials of the rice dumplings are also added with traditional Chinese medicine nootropics, and the cooked rice dumplings are called "nootropic dumplings".
In the Tang Dynasty, the custom of eating zongzi was already popular in the north and south of the great river, according to the "Wenchang Miscellaneous Records" written by Pang Yuanying of the Song Dynasty: "In the five days of the Tang Dynasty, there were hundreds of dumplings and nine zi dumplings. Among them, "Baisuo Dumplings" was also the food that the emperor rewarded the ministers, and the Dragon Boat Festival at this time mainly focused on disaster avoidance and blessings.
According to literature, in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, May 5 became an official holiday. In April of the second year of Emperor Gaozong's reign (657), the "Edict of Stopping the Festivals of Worship" yun: "Compared with the fifth day of May and the cold food and other festivals." ”
By the time of Tang Xuanzong, there was already a festival name of "Dragon Boat Festival". In the Song Dynasty, there was the name of "Dragon Boat Festival", such as Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Dream Record" Volume VIII "Dragon Boat Festival" column under which there is a text description of the Hangzhou people's Dragon Boat Festival.
The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival
The folk activities of the mainland's traditional Dragon Boat Festival, in the process of historical inheritance, have combined the customs of different regions and become increasingly rich. Nowadays, folk customs mostly sacrifice Qu Yuan during the Dragon Boat Festival, and are even called Qu Yuan Festival and Poets Festival. In fact, in history, there have been different celebrity sacrifices in various places, with obvious regional characteristics and geographical indications.
The first is said to commemorate Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was a politician and poet of the State of Chu during the Warring States period. In his early years, he was trusted by King Huai of Chu, but was later ostracized and exiled by Zilan and others. Legend has it that after the fall of the Chu state of Yingdu, on May 5, bouldering was thrown into the Miluo River. The "History of Qu Yuan Jia Sheng Lie" records that Qu Yuan Huaishi threw himself into the Miluo River, pointing out the location and method of Qu Yuan's tossing the river.
Other literature, such as the "New Language of the World", "The Record of Continuing Qi Harmony", and the "Chronicle of the Jingchu Years", record qu yuan's time of throwing the river as an accurate May 5th, which may be a kind of pandering to the may 5th festival customs.
The Dragon Boat Festival sacrifices Qu Yuan, and the earliest visible historical material is Wu Jun's "Records of Continued Qi Harmony" of Southern Liang, which says: "Qu Yuan died on the fifth day of May, and the Chu people mourned, and every day on this day, the bamboo tube stored rice and threw it into the water to sacrifice it." Later generations believed that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the sacrifice of Qu Yuan.
Qu Yuan's quality of sacrificing himself for righteousness and purity has been respected by posterity and has become a model for literati of all generations, and his patriotic feelings of worrying about the country and the people have a strong appeal, and even more than a dozen countries in Southeast Asia have taken the Dragon Boat Festival as their own national festival. Qu Yuan's own personality charm and talent as an excellent poet have always been praised by people, and he is a sage revered and loved by the Chinese people.
The second theory is to commemorate Wu Zixu. Wu Zixu was a native of the Spring and Autumn Chu State, later a doctor of the State of Wu, who once helped Wu become a powerful country, and then Wu Wangfu sent him to listen to rumors and cause him to commit suicide, according to legend, this day happened to be the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, so the Dragon Boat Festival was also a day to commemorate Wu Zixu.
The third theory is to commemorate Cao E. Cao E, the Eastern Han Dynasty will audit The Yu people, the famous filial daughter, the "Secretary of the Later Han Dynasty" said: "The filial daughter Cao E, will audit the Yu people also." Father, can string songs, for the witch blessing. On May 5 of the second year of Han'an, Yu County,Jiang Zhutao greeted the god of Baba and drowned, and no remains were allowed. Cao E missed her father and cried day and night along the river. Seventeen days later, on the fifth day of May, he threw himself into the river, and five days later he took out the body of his father. The Shangyu people were touched by Cao E's deeds, so they set this day as a festival in her memory.
It can be seen that many places in history have commemorated local celebrities. Obviously, there is the "May 5th" festival first, and then there are different celebrities who accompany it. Celebrity commemoration enriched the "May 5th" festival and became part of the folk activities of the Dragon Boat Festival.
Dragon Boat Festival and regional culture
Dragon boat racing is a symbolic culture of the Dragon Boat Festival. Today, the custom of people rowing dragon boats across the country to commemorate Qu Yuan during the Dragon Boat Festival is very common, and the dragon boat race in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is the most grand and has the greatest impact.
Su Shi, a literary scholar of the Su and Song dynasties, wrote in the phrase "Six Orders and Tianzhong Festivals": "The tiger charm is wrapped around the arm, and the festival is also the Dragon Boat Festival." In front of the door, Ai Pu is verdant, and the sky is light paper kites dance. The fragrance of rice dumpling leaves drifts for ten miles, and the wine carries a bottle. Dragon boats scramble to cross, cheer and shout, and chant Junfu with hanging sacrifices. ”
In addition, many poets depict the hustle and bustle of dragon boat racing and the superb rowing skills of sailors. For example, the Ming Dynasty poet Yuan Hongdao wrote in "Noonday Shashi Guan Jing Du Feeling Endowment": "The golden scales shake every day, the heroes sing the big shrew, the yellow-headed beard is full of charm, the wind and rain are ghostly, the thirsty jiaojiao drinks the valley and touches the stone, the healthy horse walks the Ban Maru slope, the city comes out of the Guan Xiang Strange Pass, and the red xia is like a river of gold sweat." ”
From some other customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, we can also see the obvious regional cultural colors and geographical indications.
Ai, calamus and garlic are known as the "Three Friends of the Dragon Boat Festival". During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Jingchu area of the Yangtze River Basin had the custom of picking ai. Cai Ai set out before the chickens had sounded, picking the most humanoid wormwood and bringing it back to hang on the door, and some also tied the wormwood into the shape of a tiger and pasted the wormwood leaves on it. Mugwort and calamus contain aromatic oils, which, like garlic, have a bactericidal effect.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, people use calamus as a sword, ai as a whip, and garlic as a hammer. The ancients believed that the "Dragon Boat Three Friends" could avoid insect and snake bites. In the Jiangnan region, some customs are to drink calamus wine during the Dragon Boat Festival, and its medicinal effect is more direct. Usually, before the festival, the calamus is chopped, accompanied by male yellow, soaked in wine, and the festival can be drunk.
The Dragon Boat Festival is also an ancient custom of collecting medicine and bathing lan soup, according to the "Jingchu Chronicle": "On the fifth day of May, the competition for miscellaneous medicines can cure all diseases." It can be seen that the custom of picking medicines during the Dragon Boat Festival first prevailed in the Jingchu area.
Like the Dragon Boat Festival, the Dragon Boat Bath Orchid Soup was originally popular in the Jingchu area. "JingChu Chronicle": "May 5th, called the Bath Lan Festival." "The orchid of that time was not the orchid of the present, but the peran of the Asteraceae family, which had an aroma and could be bathed in decoction water.
In Guangdong, flowers and plants such as mugwort, pu, phoenix, and white magnolia are used; in Hunan, Guangxi, and other places, cypress leaves, gale root, mugwort, pu, peach leaves, etc. are boiled into medicinal water for bathing. Regardless of whether men, women or children, the whole family is suitable, this custom is still passed down today.
The ancient Dragon Boat Festival, after thousands of years of inheritance, has been enriched by folk activities and derived many customs. There are many customs in various places, each with its own characteristics and colorful, and dragon boating is not the only common activity, and the five-colored line, drinking xionghuang wine, painting the forehead with male yellow, perfume sachets, smoked wormwood, hanging calamus, etc. have gradually declined, only zongzi has endured for a long time.
brief summary
Nowadays, the Dragon Boat Festival has become a national legal holiday, and has become a traditional cultural festival popular in China and the countries of the Chinese character cultural circle, and the Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation with a profound cultural spirit.
The Dragon Boat Festival has the significance of time transformation, and has also been given a new era connotation: the Dragon Boat Festival customs contain the value concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature in traditional Chinese culture and the wisdom of survival, which is a sense of ritual and entertainment expression for people, and the Dragon Boat Festival culture originated from the harmonious natural concept of Chinese and the rich spiritual world.