What will be shall be

The Real Story of the Dragon Boat festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most spectacular traditions of ancient China. It is an exciting period for rowing competitions marked by the eating of rice dumpling called "Ma Chang". In some Chinese-speaking societies, the day is also known as the "Poets' Day".

The Legend behind the Dragon Boat Festival embodies the story of love and service for one's country. About 2300 years ago, during the Warring States period, a well-respected poet and statesmen named "Qu Yuan" lived in the Chinese Kingdom of Chu and served the government with integrity as Minister of State.

He was disturbed by the corruption and by the court intrigues of many courtiers who resented his talent, popularity and sense of righteousness. One version said that other officials convinced the Emperor that Qu Yuan was corrupt, that his plea for reforms be ignored and had him banished from the Kingdom.

The beginning of the legend was correct but the latter part of it was found to be not-so-creditable. It was believed that the story had been altered and after lots of research and interviews, this below, my gullible friends, is the real story. The one which you have known since Primary School ought to be scrapped.

After being retrenched from his post in the imperial court, Xiao Yuan wandered the country sides and composed poems and auctioning them at eBay at very high prices. One of his poems even managed to fetch a price of 2 million golds, making him the top 10 richest man in the world that year.









Pic taken after the sale of his poem for 2 million
golds at his press conference.

With the money earned from the sale, plus his retrenchment money obtained from the court and his fat CPF account, Xiao Yuan stopped working and instead spent his time idling by the river side, eating rice dumpling and sunbathing. His wife, xiao-yu, gave up on him totally, calling him a fat lazy bastard.

The emperor came to know about this and slapped him with a crime of stealing gold from the Imperial Treasury. He then ordered his soldiers to capture Xiao-yuan alive. The army went down to the Mei Lo river where Xiao-yuan always frequents and found him while he was eating his dumpling. As he tried to escape, he slipped on the half-eaten dumpling and fell into the river. As the current was very strong, none of the soldiers dared to dive in to capture him.







The culprit which killed xiao yuan

The army commander reported the situation back to the Emperor and the Emperor sent his Navy troops down to the Mei Lo river. He promised to give a handsome reward of 10000 golds to whoever who can capture Xiao-yuan.








the race against time to capture
xiao yuan and of course the promised
10000 golds.

The alert wife of Xiao-yuan, xiao-yu, on learning this, hid all 2 million golds and fled before the imperial court came for her. The Emperor was of course furious that his navy troop had failed to capture Xiao-yuan. As a punishment, he made the entire Navy troop go to the same river every year and search for Xiao Yuan even though he was dead. This went on for many years and slowly became a tradition and hence the orgin of the Dragon Boat Festival.

The villiagers, on learning that their beloved hero had fallen into the river, were heart-brokened. They then proceeded to make many dumplings and threw them into the river so that xiao yuan can eat them when he is hungry.

Now, I know that the legend we know is that the dumplings were thrown into the river so that the fishes can feed on them instead of the flesh of xiao yuan. But by common sense, do you think that the fishes know how to unwrap the dumplings? Of course not! So the dumplings are definitely for Xiao-Yuan.

The food cycle
Dumplings thrown into river --> XiaoYuan eat dumpling--> Fish eat XiaoYuan-->villiagers eat fish

The wife of xiao yuan, xiao-yu fled to Korea and changed her name and started a new life. In memory of her hiding the gold from the Emperor of China, she changed her name to 藏金. It was heard that she later became the chef of the Korean Imperial Court and even studied medicine and became a doctor eventually.

















大藏金--the wife of xiao yuan,
formerly known as xiao yu

Happy dragon boat festival and enjoy your dumplings.

posted by malmoncolo @ 1:03 AM