Dragon Boat Festival, honoring patriotic poet and statesman Qu Yuan, on May 5th of the Lunar Calendar

Qu Yuan  On May 5th of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, the Chinese celebrate Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet who was a central official for Chu country. He was forced out of his home country to be exiled. But when the powerful Qin country invaded and leveled his capital, Qu Yuan committed suicide. Qu Yuan was born in the kingdom of Chu (or Ch'u) in 339 BC, and died in 278 BC. He was a poet and statesman from the Warring State of Chu Country. Qu Yuan wrote poetry lamenting the state of his country. His laments took the form of political allegory expressing his grief and censuring his ruler. After the Chu capital Yingdu was sacked by the Qin general Bai Qi in 278 BC when Qu Yuan was age 62, Qu Yuan took his own life in despair by throwing himself into the Miluo River (in modern-day Hunan Province). Qu Yuan was a court noble who tried to gain the support of the king of Chu in maintaining the state's independence against the aggressive designs of the state of Qin, a warlike state in the dusty northwest. He failed because of corruption and intrigue and was eventually ousted from the court. After this, Chu went into terminal decline. Its capital was sacked in 278 BC and it lost its independence half a century later to the forces of Qin in 223 BC. Qin's victory resulted in the unification of China under the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang. Although Qu Yuan is unfamiliar to most Westerners, he is said to be the inspiration behind a well-known Chinese festival: the Dragon Boat Festival of the 5th day of the 5th month (generally around June in the western solar calendar). At this time in the south of China Dragon Boats re-enact the way Qu Yuan's body was recovered by the people of Chu. Dumplings wrapped in leaves are eaten on this day. These were originally thrown in the water to distract the dragons and serpents from eating Qu Yuan's body. I always link Qu Yuan’s suicide to the Nationalist Dai Chuan Xian’s suicide in 1949. Unlike some shallow Communist historians who jeered at the sad event and condemned Dai Chuan Xian for being fearful of being on Mao’s top 49 war criminal list, I believe he was drained and died of heartache for China. He took his life in lake in Canton where he started out as a university president for Zhong Shan University. He simply could not believe that it must end that way. He was the one of the few that was near Dr. Sun’s bed before his last breath to witness China going through its continual struggles to free the mass from oppressive two tiers shackles, of the advanced colonial powers (Western, along with Japanese and Russian) and the Qing regime of the invaders. He had many struggles. He followed Dr. Sun’s cause, and went through the Northern expedition, helping the Nationalists to unify China by defeating warlords and bandits in Shangxi province who were killing and raping people in the villages, as vulgar as the Japanese invaders. Amidst all military men, he, as only an intellectual, resisted against the embezzlement of the military aid and held a gun to the leader of a ship to force him to transport the ammunition to the northern cities. He was admired for his brave action. Certainly, he didn’t kill himself because of the fear of Mao. Like Qu Yuan in his allegory to the Fisherman dialogue, “Everyone is drunk, I am wide awake. Everyone is tainted with dirt, I am solely pure.” Dai Chuan Xian would rather die than to get dirt onto a Republic that he helped hard to formulate, that was now dissolving into the hands of the savage Mao. Throughout Chinese history, many unyielding men died for their principles, so their undying longings and dreams are kept alive in people’s memory.