Dragon Boat Festival Origins

The Dragon Boat Festival, known in Chinese as Duanwu Jie (端午節) and in English also as the Double Fifth Festival, is one of the oldest of the major Chinese festivals. It is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the date on which, according to the most famous tradition, the loyal poet-statesman Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River in Hunan in 278 BCE. The festival is most recognisable to the outside world by its dragon-boat races, in which long, narrow, brightly painted boats powered by a drummer at the prow and a sweep at the stern, are rowed by teams of up to twenty paddlers, and are raced on the rivers of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora. The festival has many regional variants, and the deeper origins lie in the dragon-worship of southern China long before the Qu Yuan tradition took it over.

The Many Origins of the Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is the result of a long layering of older and newer customs. The earliest layer, according to many scholars, is a southern Chinese festival of the fifth month, associated with the coming of the summer rains and with the cult of the dragon as the bringer of the waters. The fifth month was, in the older Chinese folk-religious year, a dangerous month, and the festival was a moment of apotropaic cleansing.

The second layer is the cult of Wu Zixu, a minister of the state of Wu in the late Spring and Autumn period (sixth century BCE) who was forced to commit suicide by the treacherous King Fuchai. The third, and most famous, layer is the cult of Qu Yuan, the loyal minister and poet of the southern state of Chu in the Warring States period. His story absorbed the earlier traditions, and the Qu Yuan origin is now the standard folkloric explanation in most of China. The fourth layer is a set of apotropaic customs — the hanging of mugwort and calamus, the drinking of realgar wine, the use of the five-coloured silk thread, the binding of the egg — which are tied to the older dragon-cult and to the folk-medical tradition of the south.

Qu Yuan, the Poet-Statesman

Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BCE) was one of the great poets of the Warring States period and a minister of the southern state of Chu. According to the tradition recorded in the Shiji of Sima Qian, Qu Yuan was a man of deep loyalty to his prince and a great opponent of the pro-Qin faction at the Chu court. When the pro-Qin faction gained the upper hand, Qu Yuan was exiled; for many years he wandered the south, writing the long poems of the Chu Ci, the Songs of Chu, that established the southern, more shamanic style of Chinese poetry. In 278 BCE, when the Qin general Bai Qi took the Chu capital of Ying, Qu Yuan, in despair, took a large stone in his arms and threw himself into the Miluo River.

The local people, who loved their minister, are said to have raced out in their boats to recover his body, beating the water with their paddles and beating a drum to frighten the fish. They threw zongzi, the sticky-rice dumplings wrapped in reed leaves, into the river so that the fish would eat the dumplings and not the poet’s body. The dumplings, the boat races, and the drumming are the three great folkloric features of the festival as it is now celebrated.

The Dragon Boats

The dragon boat (longzhou, 龍舟) is a long, narrow, brightly painted vessel, generally 20 to 30 metres in length, powered by a team of up to twenty paddlers, with a drummer at the prow, a sweep at the stern, and a brightly painted dragon head and tail at bow and stern. The races are a piece of folk-religious observance: the boat is, in the older tradition, the vessel in which the spirit of the river is honoured; the dragon at the bow is the dragon of the waters; the drum is the voice that calls the dragon; the paddles are the agents of the boat.

The modern dragon-boat racing has spread well beyond the Chinese world. The International Dragon Boat Federation, founded in 1991, governs the sport worldwide, and the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships are held in a different city each year. The kinship of the Chinese dragon with the dragons of the wider world is a long-standing subject of comparative folklore.

Zongzi: The Sticky-Rice Dumplings

The zongzi, the sticky-rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, are the food most associated with the festival. The shape of the zongzi varies enormously from region to region. In the north, the zongzi is generally a tetrahedral pyramid; in the south, especially in Guangdong and Fujian, it is a longer, more rectangular shape; in the southernmost regions, the zongzi can be as large as a baby’s head, and the fillings can include not just rice but also pork belly, salted egg yolk, and chestnuts. The making of zongzi is, in many Chinese households, a family affair.

Mugwort, Calamus, and the Apotropaic Customs

On the fifth day of the fifth month, the household hangs a bunch of mugwort (ai, 艾) and a bunch of calamus (changpu, 菖蒲) at the gate, on the assumption that the sharp, slightly bitter smell of these plants drives away the evil spirits of the fifth month. Children wear a small sachet of mugwort around the neck. Realgar wine (xionghuang jiu, 雄黃酒) is drunk at the festival, in the older belief that it can drive out the internal poisons of the body. Five-coloured silk thread (wuse xian, 五色絲) is bound around the wrist of the child, in the older belief that the five colours correspond to the five elements and that the thread can ward off the bad influences of the season. The apotropaic customs are tied to a deeper folk-medical tradition of the fifth month.

Regional Variations Across China

The festival is celebrated across China, but the regional variations are striking. In the south, particularly in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and the southernmost coastal areas, the dragon-boat races are the central feature. In the central regions, particularly in Hunan (the homeland of Qu Yuan), the poet is commemorated with special intensity; the traditional grave of Qu Yuan is in Miluo, in Hunan, and the local festival is centred on the site. In the north, where the Qu Yuan tradition is less well-known, the festival is more of a folk-medical observance; the dragon-boat races are less common, and the hanging of the mugwort and the calamus is the central feature. In the southern minority regions, the Zhuang, the Miao, the Dong, the Tujia, and the Yi all have their own versions of the fifth-month festival, in which the older dragon-cult and the later Qu Yuan tradition are combined with local custom.

The Festival Across East Asia

The festival has travelled well beyond the Chinese world. In Korea, the festival is celebrated as Surit-nal (수릿날), and the major features are the swinging, the wrestling, and the rice-cake dishes. In Japan, the festival is known as Tango no Sekku (端午の節句) and is celebrated as one of the five great annual festivals. The Japanese festival is centred on the household; the boys of the family are honoured, and the houses are decorated with shobu, the iris, and with figures of warriors. The Japanese festival has been absorbed into the Children’s Day celebration in May. In Vietnam, the festival is celebrated as Tết Đoan Ngọ.

The Festival in the Modern World

The Dragon Boat Festival has had a remarkable modern career. The festival has spread to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, and many other countries. The dragon-boat racing has become a major international sport, and the International Dragon Boat Federation governs the sport worldwide. In China, the Duanwu Jie is a public holiday, and the modern Chinese state has invested heavily in the promotion of the festival as a piece of cultural heritage. The Qu Yuan tradition has also had a modern re-interpretation. The modern Chinese state has presented Qu Yuan as a patriot and a loyal minister, and the older folkloric reading of Qu Yuan as a tragic poet has been kept alive by the literary establishments. The festival has, in other words, become a major piece of the cultural diplomacy of East Asia.

Sources and Further Reading

Schipper, Kristofer, and Hsu, Francis L. K. The Origin of the Modern Chinese State: An Interpretation of Ancient Chinese History. Stanford University Press, 1969.
Eberhard, Wolfram. A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought. Translated by G. L. Campbell. Routledge, 2006.
Schafer, Edward H. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T’ang Exotics. University of California Press, 1963.
Needham, Joseph, and Lu, Gwei-djen. Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 3: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Historical Survey, from Cinnabar Elixirs to Synthetic Insulin. Cambridge University Press, 1976.