Shangsi Festival also known as the Spring Purification Festival, was an ancient tradition in China during which people would go for an outing by the water, during the third day of the third lunar calendar month, where they would enjoy themselves at a picnic, pluck orchids, and to rid themselves of any bad luck. It was also a day for invoking cleansing rituals to prevent disease. The day is also the birthday traditionally attributed to the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi.

The great calligrapher Wang Xizhi

Wang Xizhi

Wang Xizhi was a Chinese calligrapher, traditionally referred to as the Sage of Calligraphy , who lived during the Jin Dynasty...

 mentions this festival in his famous Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion

Lanting Xu

The Lantingji Xu or Lanting Xu is the most famous work of calligraphy by Wang Xizhi, composed in year 353. Written in semi-cursive script, it is the most well-known and well-copied piece ever...

, written in regard to the famous Orchid Pavilion Gathering

Orchid Pavilion Gathering

The Orchid Pavilion Gathering was a cultural and poetic event during the Six Dynasties era, in China. This event itself has a certain inherent and poetic interest in regards to the development of landscape poetry and the philosophical ideas of Zhuangzi...

, during the Six Dynasties

Six Dynasties

Six Dynasties is a collective noun for six Chinese dynasties during the periods of the Three Kingdoms , Jin Dynasty , and Southern and Northern Dynasties ....

era.