孝女曹娥

The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the filial daughter Cao E of the Eastern Han Dynasty (23–220 AD), who threw herself into the river to save her father. Cao E was a native of Shangyu during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Her father drowned in the river, and his body was not found for several days. At the time, the filial daughter Cao E was only fourteen years old, and she wept and wailed along the riverbank day and night. After seventeen days, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, she also threw herself into the river. Five days later, she emerged from the water holding her father’s body. This event became a myth and was later reported to the county magistrate, who ordered Du Shang to erect a stone tablet in her honor and commissioned his disciple Handan Chun to compose a eulogy in praise of her.