Qu Yuan is remembered as a poet and official of Chu during the Warring States period. Accounts of his life describe service, slander and exile. Poems associated with him survive in the Chu Ci tradition, whose expressive language differs from the short regular lines of the Book of Songs. The writing gives the remembered figure a voice beyond the summary of a political career.
From the journal
A Poet Remembered in the Fifth Month
Qu Yuan’s poetry and the traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival connect Chu’s literary past with boats, rice dumplings and local remembrance.
In the same city · Yichang ↗
A poet associated with Chu
A death carried by tradition
The familiar account says that Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River, in today’s Hunan. Later tradition connected efforts to search for or protect him with boats and rice offerings. These stories explain one important strand of the Dragon Boat Festival’s meaning. They should not be presented as proof that every festival custom began at one moment or that the Miluo River lies in Hubei.
Boats, food and a calendar
The festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the traditional calendar. Dragon-boat racing and zongzi, rice packets wrapped in leaves, are among its best-known practices. Different communities carry their own customs and memories. At Zigui in Hubei, Qu Yuan’s hometown tradition supplies a local connection, distinct from the Miluo account of his death.