(Dragon Boat Race)

Today 8 June,2008 is Tuen Ng Festival or Dragon Boat Festival or Duanwu Festival (traditional Chinese: 端午節; simplified Chinese: 端午节, Pinyin: Qū Yuán). It is another Chinese traditional and statutory holiday in China. There are a number of theories about its origins but the most commonly accepted version is related to the death of a poet named Qu Yuan in 278 BC. In this festival, it related to two things and a poet: 1) Dragon Boat, 2) Zongzi, 3) A poet named Qu Yuan. The following paragraphs are the history background about this festival.

Qu Yuan

Qu Yuan is a poet ( 340 BC- 279 BC) of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period (traditional Chinese: 戰國時代; simplified Chinese: 战国时代; pinyin: Zhànguó Shídài, also known as the Era of Warring States) of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month. Qu Yuan was accused of treason. Local people who admired him, threw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan’s body.

This is why Tuen Ng Festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, we called “Double Fifth” in here and it is also a statutory holiday as I mentioned at the beginning. In this year, Tuen Ng festival falls on 8 June and next year, it will be on 28 May,2009.

You might know why the English name of Tuen Ng Festival named Dragon Boat Festival? The Dragon Boat Race is one of the traditional activities for this holiday till now~ As you can see the picture in the above. In the past, people believed that to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve Qu’s body.

Wrapped Rice dumpling            Unwrapped Rice dumping      Jianshui zong fills with red beans

Furthermore, we also eat Zongzi / Rice Dumpling, which is a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings ( e.g. fat pork, green beans, mushroom) and wrapped in bamboo leaves and tie it by a seaweed or string. It cooked by steaming or boiling. Another common one is Jianshui zong (碱水粽), it fills with red beans only, people used to serve this kind of rice dumpling with sugar or syrup. Besides, there are many different kinds of rice dumplings fills with different things available in the market nowadays. :-p The fillings used for zongzi vary from region to region, filling maybe sweet or salty. The following are the ingredients might use for the fillings of the zongzi :

• Skinless mung beans
• Red bean paste
• Jujubes

Or savoury with fillings such as: (Highlighted in PINK are the ingredients commonly used for the fillings)

• Char siu (Chinese barbecue pork)
• Chinese sausage
• Chinese black mushrooms
• Salted duck eggs
• Chhestnuts
• Cooked peanuts
• Green beans
• Dried shrimp
• Scallops
• Red-cooked pork
• Curry Chicken

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuen_Ng_Festival

(Partial part of the painting)

Qingming Shanghe tu (Click this link to see the whole painting) is a painting with long 528cm, width 24.8cm, which was drawn by a painter in Northern Song Dynasty, and now this painting is placed at The Palace Museum ,which located in Beijing.

“Qingming” means 2 dynasties, and the painting showed a peaceful and flourishing society. It depicts the scenes along the Bian Canal and around the southeast gate of Bianjing (Bianjing was the capital of the Northern Song dynasty and this place is named Kaifeng now). 

This long painting included 3 parts. The beginning is from right-hand end to the left, as you can see from the above link of Qingming Shanghe tu, the first part portrays the thatched cottages, paths crisscrossing fields, and the farm life in the suburbs. At the center of this part is a stand of ancient willow trees,  the functions of planting these willow trees are for secure the embankments of canals. They also implied of caring of the government.

The Second part is a grand arching bridge as its center, which depicts commerce along the Bian Canal. The wooden bridge on this part was invented in Qingzhou, Shandong province in 1031-1032, and was built over the Bian Canal during the 1040s, which linking water and land transportation. Beneath the bridge, you can see a large boat was lowering its mast in order to continue its journey upstream.

The last part of this painting depicts the street in the urban area which located at the centerpeice of the city gate with a camel train passing beneath. Shops are dense: there were some big shops and small shops, the big shops like hotels are ornamented with decorative scaffolding; small shops are hardly more than shacks. Besides, you can also see a government office and the buddish temple in this painting.

Furthermore, the crowds of the pedestrains jostle each other, different identities and attires were showed in this painting. As you can see like gentlemen, officials, servants, peddlers, sedan-chair bearers, bakers, shopkeepers..etc..even beggars.  In ancient china, the identities were very important. The main vehicles for transportation were sedan chair, wheelbarrows, train of camels, ox-, horse- and donkey-drawn carts.

This painting showed the details of the life in both urban and suburs areas and the brilliant constructions. You can see what they were doing on this painting if you look at it carefully. The feeling is so real~and I was amazing when I saw this painting!!! That’s why it is one of the precious important painting in Mainland China.

 Source:

Yang Xin. Life along the Bian River at the Pure Brightness Festival

(Qingming Shanghe tujuan). Retrieved October 15, 2007 from

http://www.dpm.org.cn

http://zh.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E6%B8%85%E6%98%8E%E4%B8%8A%E6%B2%B3%E5%9C%96&variant=zh-tw