【正文】
?kauns?l] (進諫) that brought peace and prosperity to the state. ? However, when a dishonest and corrupt prince vilified [?vilifaid] (中傷) Qu Yuan, he was disgraced, dismissed from office, and eventually exiled. During his exile, Qu Yuan did not give up. He traveled extensively, taught and wrote about his ideas. His works, the Lament [l?39。ment] (Li Sao), the Nine Chapters (Jiu Zhang), are masterpieces and invaluable for studying ancient Chinese culture. ? He saw the gradual decline of his motherland, the Chu State. And when he heard that the Chu State was defeated by the strong Qin State, he was so despaired that he ended his life by flinging himself into the Miluo River. ? It was said that after people heard he drowned, they were greatly dismayed. Fishermen raced to the spot in their boats to search for his body. Unable to find his body, people threw rice dumplings, eggs and other food into the river to feed fish, hoping to secure his corpse. Since then, people started to memorate Qu Yuan through dragon boat races, eating rice dumplings and other activities, on the anniversary of his death, the 5th of the fifth month. ?This is said to be the origin of the present nationwide custom, which is the mon people?s expression of grief over Qu?s death. ? But since some of the wellknown traditions of the festival already existed even before Qu Yuan, other origins of the festival were also suggested. ? Wen Yiduo suggested that the festival may be associated with dragon closely because two of the most important activities of the festival, dragon boat racing and eating