The origin of eating dumplings during the Spring Festival, the origin of eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, and the origin of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival...
The origin of eating dumplings during the Spring Festival:
The earliest name for dumplings in history is "Jiao Er". This popular food was first invented by the medical sage Zhang Zhongjing. The story of his "Quhan Jiao Er Soup" has been passed down among the people to this day. Zhang Zhongjing was a native of Nanyang, Henan Province during the Eastern Han Dynasty. He studied medical books painstakingly since he was a child, learned from others' strengths, and became the founder of traditional Chinese medicine. He wrote "Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases", which is a collection of medical works and is regarded as a classic by doctors of all generations. It is China's first medical monograph that establishes the principles of syndrome differentiation and treatment from theory to practice. It is one of the most influential works in the history of Chinese medicine. Zhang Zhongjing has a famous saying: "If you advance, you will save the world; if you retreat, you will save the people; if you cannot be a good minister, you should also be a good doctor." Zhang Zhongjing is not only a good doctor, he can cure all difficult and complicated diseases, but also has noble medical ethics. He treats both poor and rich people. They all treated seriously and saved countless lives. He is known as "the sage of medicine and the ancestor of prescription."
Zhang Zhongjing lived in the turbulent late Eastern Han Dynasty, with years of fighting, "the people abandoned agriculture", many urban farms became wilderness, and people were displaced. Hungry, cold and trapped. Plague broke out continuously in various places, especially in Luoyang, Nanyang, and Kuaiji (Shaoxing). "Every family is suffering from the pain of zombies, and every room is crying and crying;" It is said that when Zhang Zhongjing was the prefect of Changsha, he often cured diseases for the people. One year when the local plague was prevalent, he built a big pot at the yamen gate and gave up medicine to save people. He was deeply loved by the people of Changsha. After Zhang Zhongjing retired from Changsha and returned to his hometown, he happened to catch up with the winter solstice and walked to the bank of Baihe River in his hometown. He saw many poor people suffering from hunger and cold, and their ears were rotten by the frost. It turns out that typhoid fever was prevalent at that time, and many people died from the disease. He felt very sad and determined to save them. When Zhang Zhongjing returned home, there were so many people seeking medical treatment that he was very busy, but he always kept in mind the poor people whose ears were rotten by the cold. He imitated the method in Changsha and asked his disciples to set up a medical shed and a large pot on an open space in Dongguan, Nanyang. They opened it on the winter solstice and gave medicine to the poor to treat their injuries.
This special medicine dedicated by Zhang Zhongjing is called "Quhan Jiaoer Decoction". It is a summary of more than 300 years of clinical practice in the Han Dynasty. The method is to use mutton, pepper and some cold-dispelling medicinal materials in a pot. Boil and simmer, take out these things and chop them into pieces, wrap them in dough into ear-shaped "Jiao Er", cook them in a pot and distribute them to patients begging for medicine. Each person has two charming ears and a bowl of soup. After people eat the Quhan Decoction, their whole body feels warm, their blood becomes smooth, and their ears become warm. The common people ate it from the winter solstice to New Year's Eve, resisting typhoid fever and curing their frozen ears.
Zhang Zhongjing continued to give medicine until New Year's Eve. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people celebrate the New Year and the recovery of rotten ears. They make New Year's food like Jiao Er and eat it on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. People call this food "dumplings", "dumplings" or "flat food" and eat it on the winter solstice and the first day of the new year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened shed medicine and cured patients.
The invention of dumplings has a history of more than 1,800 years. As early as the Three Kingdoms period, this food was mentioned in the book "Guangya" written by Wei Zhangyi. But after the dumplings were cooked at that time, they were not taken out and eaten separately, but mixed with the soup in a bowl and eaten. By the Tang Dynasty, the dumplings had become almost the same as today's dumplings, and they were taken out and eaten Eat individually on a plate. In the Tang Dynasty, dumplings were called "Lao Wan", boiled dumplings were called "Tangzhong Lao Wan", and steamed dumplings were called "Long Shang Lao Wan". This name was used before about the Song Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, the names were more complicated, including "fenjiao", "bianshi", "shuijiao", "dumplings", "water dim sum", "boiled pastry", etc. For example, "Miscellaneous Notes of Wanshu" written during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty records: "On New Year's Day, we make plaques to pay New Year's greetings." Liu Ruoyu's "Zhuizhongzhi" records: "On the first day of the Lunar New Year's Day, we eat fruit snacks, that is, plaque food" (the "bian" in "ban food" is now commonly known as "bian"). The collective name "dumplings" probably dates back to the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.
The origin of eating rice dumplings on the Dragon Boat Festival:
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival. Folks have the habit of eating rice dumplings. Legend has it that it is to commemorate Qu Yuan, the minister of Chu State during the Warring States Period.
Qu Yuan is a great patriotic poet in our country. He actively advocated that Chu State unite with Qi State to fight against Qin State. His opinions were not adopted. Instead, he was dismissed from his official position and sent to a remote place.
When the Chu Kingdom was about to fall, Qu Yuan committed suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
After Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, the people of Chu State threw delicious food into the river in order to prevent the fish, shrimps, turtles and crabs in the river from eating Qu Yuan's body. In this way year after year, in order to commemorate this patriotic poet, people throw food into the river to worship Qu Yuan every Dragon Boat Festival.
One night, an old man dreamed of Qu Yuan and asked him: "We gave you so much food, have you eaten it?" Qu Yuan said: "You gave it to me. The rice will be eaten by those fish, shrimps, turtles and crabs." The old man asked, "How can I avoid being eaten by them?"
Qu Yuan said, "Wrap the rice in bamboo leaves and make it into water chestnuts. They thought they were water chestnuts and didn’t dare to eat them.”
On the Dragon Boat Festival the next year, people followed Qu Yuan’s words and threw the rice dumplings into the Miluo River. However, after the Dragon Boat Festival, Qu Yuan gave the old man another dream and said: "Thank you for sending me so many rice dumplings. I ate them. But most of them were eaten by fish, shrimps, turtles and crabs."
The old man asked Qu Yuan: "What else can I do?"
Qu Yuan said: "The boat delivering the rice dumplings must be dressed like a dragon, because fish, shrimps, turtles, and crabs are under the jurisdiction of the dragon, and they cannot Dare to eat the Dragon King's food."
Since then, every year on the Dragon Boat Festival, people row dragon boats to send rice dumplings to the Miluo River. This is the origin of eating rice dumplings and rowing dragon boats during the Dragon Boat Festival
Moon cakes usually refer to the cakes that people eat during the specific festival of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and are usually round.
According to historical records, the first time that cakes were associated with the moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival was when General Li Jing returned victorious from conquering the Xiongnu on August 15th. Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty accepted the Hu cakes offered by Turpan merchants and pointed out with a smile Yue said: "You should invite toads with Hu cakes." During the Northern Song Dynasty, this kind of cake was called "palace cake" and was popular in the palace. But it also spread to the people. At that time, it was commonly known as "small cake" and "moon cake". Later it evolved into a circle, which symbolizes reunion and happiness. According to "Luozhong Insights", Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty ordered the imperial kitchen to use red silk to reward new scholars with cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival. But it was not called mooncakes at that time.
The word moon cake was first seen in Wu Zimu's "Meng Liang Lu" in the Southern Song Dynasty. The moon cakes at that time were rhombus-shaped, existing at the same time as chrysanthemum cakes, plum blossom cakes, etc., and they were "available at any time, any time" Ask for help and never miss a customer." It can be seen that mooncakes at this time are not only eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. As for the origin of the term mooncake, there is no way to verify it. However, Su Dongpo, a famous scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, left a poem that said, "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, with crisp and glutinous rice in them." Perhaps this is the origin of the name of moon cakes and the basis for the making of moon cakes.
Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been a large number of records about moon cakes. At this time, the moon cakes were already round and were only eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. They were the main offerings during the Mid-Autumn Festival that became popular among the people starting from the Ming Dynasty. "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" says: "When worshiping the moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the fruit cake must be round." "If a household sets the moonlight in the direction of the moon, and worships toward the moon, the moonlight paper will be burned, the offerings will be removed, and the family members will be dispersed. The moon cakes and fruits will be sent to each other by relatives, and the cakes are two feet in diameter." There is a widely circulated story about Zhu Yuanzhang using moon cakes to convey the news of the uprising on August 15th. It doesn't match, because Zhu Yuanzhang never led the uprising but only joined Guo Zixing's team and took Guo's adopted daughter as his wife, who was Queen Ma. If the legend about using mooncakes to convey news of the uprising is true, it was most likely done by Zhang Shicheng. But this legend proves from another aspect that the Yuan Dynasty had the custom of eating mooncakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The origin of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival:
Mooncakes symbolize reunion and should have started in the Ming Dynasty. If we look at the information about moon cakes and Mid-Autumn Festival folk customs in the Ming Dynasty, we should be able to see the historical trajectory of moon cakes meaning reunion: after worshiping the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the whole family would sit around and share moon cakes and fruits (moon offerings) . Because moon cakes are also round and shared by the whole family, moon cakes have gradually come to symbolize family reunion.