Searching for the Bodies of the Drowned: A Folk Tradition of Early China Recovered

摘要

In early writings about pre-Eastern Han (25-220) China, documentation on attempts to find drowned bodies is non-existent. The most well-known drowned figure in early history is Qu Yuan (ca. 339-ca. 278 B.C.), loyal minister of the state of Chu who supposedly drowned himself in despair at being misunderstood and banished by his ruler. However, early records, such as the Shiji and Wang Yi's (ca. 89-ca. 158) commentary on the Chuci anthology, recount nothing about searching for the body of Qu Yuan. Legends relate that "people of the Chu state felt sorrowful for it [i.e., Qu's suicide]," and that people threw into the river rice wrapped with five-colored strings, lest water dragons eat the remains of Qu Yuan. But there was no effective method for finding the drowned body; this seems to have been the case before Eastern Han