Archaeologists in eastern China have uncovered 2,200-year-old bundles of grain wrapped in leaves inside a royal tomb, revealing an ancient Chinese legend that may have preceded traditions later associated with the poet Qu Yuan and the Dragon Boat Festival.
The bundles came from Wuwangdun, a major Warring States-period tomb associated with King Kaolie of Chu, who died in 238 B.C. Waterlogged conditions inside the tomb’s East I chamber preserved the fragile plant materials for more than two millennia. The small packages contained plant material wrapped in leaves and secured with cords. Laboratory analysis identified the wrapping as leaves from Quercus dentata, a species of oak. The cords were likely made from grasses rather than hemp.
Grain bundles were likely ritual offerings
Researchers examined 456 seeds from 10 bundles. Rice accounted for 43.6% of the sample, followed by foxtail millet at 28.5% and broomcorn millet at 26.1%. Most of the grains survived only as husks. Scientists recovered just one partly decayed rice grain. The large number of intact husks suggests the plants were not prepared as an ordinary meal.
Microscopic analysis strengthened that interpretation. Brown residue inside the leaves contained no starch granules, ruling against flour or dough made from ground grain. Instead, researchers found grass pollen and phytoliths linked to cereal flower heads, including parts of wheat and barley that people normally would not eat.
The evidence suggests the bundles served as ritual offerings. Grain could represent wealth and resources for the dead in early Chinese funerary traditions. Other archaeological discoveries have also revealed how symbolic objects played important roles in ancient Chinese beliefs about death and the afterlife.
A possible link to Qu Yuan and zongzi
The discovery is particularly significant because of its cultural setting. Qu Yuan, a celebrated poet and statesman, lived in the Chu Kingdom during the Warring States period.
Archaeologists in China have uncovered 2,200-year-old grain bundles wrapped in leaves inside a royal tomb.
The ritual offerings may shed light on an ancient legend linked to poet Qu Yuan and the origins of zongzi, eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival. pic.twitter.com/Q2hz10zvJF
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) September 29, 2026
According to later tradition, Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River after his exile. People then threw leaf-wrapped grain into the water to prevent fish from consuming his body. The story eventually became associated with zongzi, parcels of rice or millet wrapped in leaves and eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival.
The Wuwangdun bundles do not prove that legend. Researchers also stop short of identifying them as ancient zongzi. However, earlier research into the Wuwangdun bundles shows that people in the Chu cultural world were already wrapping grain in leaves and tying the packages with plant cords for ritual purposes about 2,200 years ago.
The find also adds to evidence showing the importance of grain in ancient Chinese life. Researchers have used ancient tomb discoveries to reconstruct Chinese rice preparation and food traditions dating back roughly two millennia.
Later texts describe similar leaf-wrapped grain preparations. Archaeologists have also found comparable bundles at the Chu-period site of Chengyangcheng. Together, the evidence suggests the Wuwangdun bundles may represent an early precursor to a tradition that survived in different forms for centuries.
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