Traditional Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin
Qu Yuan and the Dragon Boats
屈原和龙舟
Qu Yuan and the Dragon Boats (屈原和龙舟, Qū Yuán hé lóngzhōu) is a Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin as a 3-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 1 (Beginner).
Retold from the life and legend of the poet Qu Yuan, the story behind the Dragon Boat Festival: an honest minister warns his king about the tiger next door, and a flattering rival gets him sent away.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — An old storyteller who tells Qu Yuan's story the way it is told every year when the dragon boats come out.
- Qu Yuan · 屈原 — A minister and poet of Chu who loves his country too much to flatter anyone, and who talks to its mountains and rivers in verse.
- The King of Chu · 楚王 — King Huai of Chu, a pleasure-loving ruler who adores gifts and praise and believes whoever spoke to him last.
- Grand Master Shangguan · 上官大夫 — A jealous official at the court of Chu whose answer to everything the King says is “Your Majesty is right!”
- The Old Fisherman · 老渔夫 — A cheerful old fisherman on the Miluo River who believes most troubles look smaller after a good fish dinner.
- A Villager · 村民 — A young man from the fishing village who helps lead the search on the river.
- Grandpa · 爷爷 — Tiantian's grandfather, who takes her to the dragon boat race every year and knows the story behind every drumbeat.
- Tiantian · 甜甜 — A seven-year-old girl who loves dragon boats, has a question about everything, and never stops at one zongzi.
3 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: Your Majesty Is Right
大王说得对
In the palace of Chu, honest Qu Yuan warns his king about a tiger bearing gifts, while a flattering rival agrees with every word the king says.
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Chapter 2: Six Hundred Li
六百里
The King waits for his six hundred li, and far to the south Qu Yuan meets an old fisherman who thinks any sorrow can be cured with a fish.
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Chapter 3: The Dragon Boats
龙舟
On the fifth day of the fifth month, a whole fishing village takes to its boats, and more than two thousand years later a little girl finds out why.
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Key words in Qu Yuan and the Dragon Boats
Behind the story
Qu Yuan (屈原, about 340–278 BC) was a minister of the state of Chu in the Warring States period, and the first great Chinese poet whose name we know. The historian Sima Qian (司马迁) told his life in the Records of the Grand Historian (史记): a loyal adviser pushed aside by a jealous official, a king fooled by Qin's promise of six hundred li of land, and a poet who wandered the rivers of the south and at last went into the Miluo River (汨罗江).
The Dragon Boat Festival, 端午节, falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar. Legend says the people who loved Qu Yuan rowed out to look for him, beat drums and threw rice into the river, and that is why families race dragon boats and eat 粽子, sticky rice wrapped in leaves, on that day. Historians think some of the festival's customs are older than Qu Yuan, and a few places also honor other heroes on the day, but his is the story told all over China.
Did you know?
- China's Mars probe 天问一号 (Tianwen-1), which put the country's first rover on Mars in 2021, is named after 天问, “Heavenly Questions,” Qu Yuan's long poem made almost entirely of questions about the sky, the earth and the past.
- The 汨 in 汨罗江 is read mì. It is easy to mix up with 汩 (gǔ, used for the sound of flowing water): the only difference is the right-hand part, 日 in the river's name and a wider 曰 in the other.
- Children often wear a bracelet of five-colored silk threads, 五彩绳, for the festival, an old custom meant to keep sickness away.