Qu Yuan

Qu Yuan served as Senior Minister of the Three Clans in the Warring States–period State of Chu. Though loyal and upright, he was slandered and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang river regions. Upon learning of the fall of Yingdu—the Chu capital—he drowned himself in the Miluo River on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. The people of Chu grieved deeply and raced dragon boats and cast glutinous rice dumplings into the water in desperate attempts to save or honor him—giving rise to the enduring customs of the Dragon Boat Festival. Over two millennia, Qu Yuan evolved from historical figure to revered deity: he is worshipped as the River God of the Miluo River and counted among the ‘Venerable Kings of the Waters’. Families living along the rivers of Xiang-Chu especially observe his cult with solemn devotion. Annual sacrifices are held at the Qu Yuan Temple in Miluo, while the Qu Yuan Ancestral Home in Zigui, Hubei Province, maintains unbroken incense offerings. Literati revere him as the founding patriarch of Chinese poetry and pray to him for inspiration and literary excellence; common folk, moved by his unwavering loyalty and moral purity, annually summon his spirit with dragon boat races and mugwort- and zongzi-based rites—making this the foremost ritual observance in Chinese cultural tradition.