history of dragon boating

The origins of the Dragon Boat festival date back over 2000 years. Originally a religious practice, it is now purely recreational. The Dragon Boat festival commemorates the death of the poet Qu Yuan (pronounced "choo wan"), who drowned himself in the third century BC as a protest against a corrupt government. The legends are that the towns people attempted to rescue him by beating drums to scare fish away from eating his body and threw rice dumplings into the river to tempt the fish away from their hero. Qu Yuan - the patriotic poet The misfortunes that Qu Yuan (340-278 BC) suffered drove him to take his own life, but also moved him to write some of the most beautiful poetry in the Chinese language. For his devotion to his State of Chu during the Warring States period (403-221 BC), he has become an historic model of patriotism.

Dragon boats navigate the Grand Canal, circa 600 AD (Picture courtesy Encarta Online)

The State of Qin in the west was bent on annexing the other states, including Qu Yuan's home state of Chu in the Changjiang (Yangtze) River valley to the south. Qu Yuan, who held the second highest office in the state, urged the Chu people to join with the state of Qi to the east and resist Qin.

However, other ministers of the State of Qin were trying to disrupt any anti-Qin alliances and opposed Qu Yuan's pleas. They also felt threatened by other controversial ideas that Qu Yuan advocated, such as meritocracy (promoting people on the basis of demonstrated skills and abilities), and seized upon an incident with a jealous court official in Chu to get rid of him.

Qu Yuan

Qu Yuan had refused to let Jin Sheng, the chief minister to the King of Chu, have a look at a draft of a decree he had been asked to draw up. In anger Jin spread the rumour that Qu Yuan was leaking state secrets. He said that Qu Yuan had boasted that without his aid no decree could be drafted. This made the King of Chu feel that Qu Yuan was belittling him. When the Qin heard of the incident in Chu, they secretly sent a large amount of gold, silver and jewels to Chu to bribe Jin Sheng to form an anti-Qu Yuan clique. The result was that the king banished Qu Yuan from the capital in 313 BC.

The next year, as relations between Qin and Chu worsened, Qu Yuan was called back and named to a high office. In 299 BC after several unsuccessful forays against Chu, Qin invited the King of Chu over, ostensibly for talks. Fearind this might be a trap, Qu Yuan urged his king not to go, but he would not listen and he even accused Qu Yuan of interfering. It was indeed a trap; on the way, the King was abducted and died in captivity three years later.

Chu came under the rule of the king's eldest son, later known as King Qing Xiang. Under him the state administration deteriorated. Moreover, King Xiang, who was married to a daughter of the king of Qin, disapproved of Qu Yuan's resolve to resist Qin. In 296 BC, Qu Yuan was banished for the second time. Grieving for the condition of his homeland, for years he wandered about south of the Changjiang.

During this time he poured out his feelings of grief and concern for his state in the allegorical Li Sao, a long autobiographical poem in which he tells of his political ideal and the corruption. selfishness and disregard for the people on the part of dubious characters who had achieved trusted positions.

In 280 BC Qin launched an overall invasion of Chu and in 278 BC captured the capital. In frustration at being unable to do anything to save his state, Qu Yuan clasped a big stone to his breast and jumped into the Miluo River, in northeastern Hunan province, to end his life. Fishermen raced out in their boats in a futile attempt to save him, thrashing the water with their paddles and throwing bamboo stuffed with cooked rice into the water to prevent the fish from eating his body.

Qu Yuan's sufferings had gained the sympathy of the people of Chu, and his tragic death is commemorated each year on the fifth day of the fifth moon, the day he drowned himself, when the fishermens’ attempt to save the poet is re-enacted in the form of dragon boat races. Traditionally, one paddler stands in the boat searching for Qu Yuan's body, while a drummer on board and the ferocious-looking dragon designs were added to frighten away evil water spirits.

The original Chinese dragon boats are constructed from teak planks, with camphor wood ornamental heads and tails. However, most modern dragon boats, such as the ones used in Canberra, are constructed from fibreglass, with wooden benches and detachable fibreglass ornamental heads and tails. Modern dragon boats are powered by up to 20 paddlers sitting in pairs on benches, plus a sweep (who stands at the rear of the boat and steers it using a sweep oar) and a drummer seated at the front of the boat.