The Dragon Boat Festival is a festival founded by the ancient Baiyue ancestors to worship their ancestors. Later, it was said that the Dragon Boat Festival in the Chu Kingdom commemorated Qu Yuan's death on the fifth day of the Dragon Boat Festival. Then why do you eat Zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival? Let's get to know.
Why do you eat Zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival
The records of zongzi in historical materials began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, zongzi was wrapped in ox horn shape, which was called "jiaoshu". "The ancients cooked rice wrapped in wild rice leaves, with sharp corners, like the heart-shaped palm leaves of zongzi," said the local records of Zhou Chu in the Western Jin Dynasty
It is also said that this food is eaten every year on the summer solstice and the Dragon Boat Festival. In addition, according to ancient books, the summer solstice used millet and chicken to sacrifice ancestors as early as Yin and Zhou dynasties. Later, the Dragon Boat Festival offered sacrifices to Qu Yuan with zongzi, but it was the evolution and development of the original customs.
Nowadays, zongzi has developed into a folk flavor food that can be seen all year round. Due to different eating habits in different places, zongzi have different flavors from the north and the south. However, the famous Dragon Boat zongzi is produced in Zhengzhou, the Central Plains, both South and North, with rich flavors, such as pineapple zongzi, black waxy peanut zongzi, mung bean Rong zongzi, chestnut zongzi, osmanthus red bean zongzi, purple waxy Babao zongzi, jujube yam zongzi, barley kernel zongzi, barbecue zongzi, chestnut pig meat zongzi, mushroom meat zongzi, Taiwan Classic meat zongzi, Hong Kong Style abalone zongzi, Guangdong style yaozhu zongzi Jiaxing egg yolk meat dumplings, Soviet style Jinsha Lily dumplings, Beijing style longan lotus seed dumplings, etc. can be regarded as taking into account the taste "Aesthetics" of the people all over the country, and there are enough flavors to apply for the Guinness world record. Can it be compared with a stick country that clamors to plunder Chinese culture all day?
Now, zongzi is cooked with wild rice leaves wrapped with millet according to the origin of eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival. The sharp corners, such as the heart shape of zongzi palm leaves, wrap zongzi.
The moral of eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival
1. Drive away the Dragon
It is recorded in the records of beginners that during the Jianwu period of the Han Dynasty, Changsha people dreamed of a man at night, claiming to be doctor Sanlu (Qu Yuan's official name), and said to him, "all the things you sacrifice have been stolen by Jiaolong in the river. Later, you can wrap them with wormwood leaves and tie them with five-color silk thread. Jiaolong is most afraid of these two things, so you don't have to worry about being damaged by Jiaolong!" Therefore, people use "wild rice leaves wrapped with millet" to make "corns". Passed down from generation to generation, it has gradually developed into food for the Dragon Boat Festival in China.
2. Commemorating Qu Yuan
It is said that in 340 BC, Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet and doctor of the state of Chu, faced the pain of subjugation. On May 5, he threw a boulder into the Guluo river with grief and anger. In order not to cause fish and shrimp to damage his body, people put rice in bamboo tubes into the river. Later, in order to show their respect and memory for Qu Yuan, on this day, people put rice in bamboo tubes and threw it into the river for sacrifice. This is the origin of the earliest zongzi in China - "tube zongzi".
Qu Yuan was from Chu during the Warring States period. When he saw that the country was going to die, he threw himself into the Guluo River and died on May 5. People rowed boats to salvage his body and sprinkled rice into the river to prevent fish and shrimp from invading Qu Yuan. So there was the Dragon Boat Festival, the dragon boat race, and eating zongzi. Another little-known version says that Qu Yuan was upright. His political enemies chased his boat in the river, killed him and went deep into the bottom of the river in sacks. In order to cover up his crime, he pretended to write a suicide note of "Huaisha", which is rumored that Qu Yuan committed suicide. But the common people knew it well, so there was the Dragon Boat Festival. Boating implied that the little people were chasing Qu Yuan and making zongzi. It was a metaphor for the little people to bind Qu Yuan and throw him into the water.
3. Seeking children
During the Dragon Boat Festival, people will give each other nine zongzi, which means seeking children. Jiuzi zongzi is a kind of zongzi, that is, nine zongzi are connected into a string. There are big and small, the big one is up and the small one is down. They have different shapes and are very beautiful. And nine colors of silk thread tied into a colorful. Jiuzi zongzi is mostly used as a gift for relatives and friends, such as the gift given by the mother to the married daughter and the gift given by the mother-in-law to the newlyweds. Because "zongzi" is homonymous with "neutron", there is a folk custom that eating "zongzi" can get a son. "Zongzi" is a homonym for "zhongzi", implying the prosperity of people.
4. Winning fame
Because "Zong" and "Zhong" sound close to each other, it takes the meaning of "achievement and reputation in the middle", which means that you won the merit and reputation in the bachelor's examination in ancient times. Usually, the ancient imperial examinations were held in autumn. Therefore, during the Dragon Boat Festival, people who want to get the first place in fame can eat zongzi, which means the best in one fell swoop.
5. Honor our ancestors
Because the sound of "zongzi" and "Zong" is close, eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival means "glorifying our ancestors", so everyone eats zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival.
The custom of eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival
People only know that eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan.
It is said that in 340 BC, Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet and doctor of the state of Chu, faced the pain of subjugation. On May 5, he threw a boulder into the Guluo river with grief and anger. In order not to cause fish and shrimp to damage his body, people put rice in bamboo tubes into the river. Later, in order to show their respect and memory for Qu Yuan, on this day, people put rice in bamboo tubes and threw it into the river for sacrifice. This is the origin of the earliest zongzi in China - "tube zongzi".
Why did you use Wormwood Leaves, reed leaves and lotus leaves to wrap zongzi? "Chuxueji" has such a record: during the Jianwu period of the Han Dynasty, Changsha people dreamed of a man at night, claiming to be doctor Sanlu (Qu Yuan's official name), and said to him: "the things you sacrificed were stolen by the Jiaolong in the river. Later, you can wrap them with AI ye and tie up the five-color silk thread. Jiaolong is most afraid of these two things." Therefore, people used "wild rice leaves wrapped with millet" to make "corns", which were handed down from generation to generation, and gradually developed into the food for the Dragon Boat Festival in China.
However, according to expert research, zongzi is just an ordinary folk food, and it is not fixed at the Dragon Boat Festival to eat Zongzi at first; It is said that the Dragon Boat Festival eating zongzi is a sacrifice to Qu Yuan, which is formed by the association of later generations. It only reflects the wishes of the people.
In fact, in order to commemorate Jie Zitui of the state of Jin in the spring and Autumn period and form a folk festival custom, "cold food festival" (the day before the Qingming Festival), eating zongzi originated earlier than eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival. So far, the folk custom of eating zongzi on the day before Qingming Festival and Qingming Festival is still popular in many places.
According to records, as early as the spring and Autumn period, rice was wrapped with wild rice leaves (Zizania latifolia leaves) into ox horn shape, which was called "corns"; The rice is packed in bamboo tube, sealed and roasted, which is called "tube Zong" At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the millet was soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped in wild rice leaves into a quadrangular shape and cooked to become Guangdong alkaline water zongzi.
In the Jin Dynasty, zongzi was officially designated as the food for the Dragon Boat Festival. At this time, in addition to glutinous rice, the raw material of zongzi is also added with Chinese medicine Yizhi kernel. The cooked zongzi is called "Yizhi zongzi" According to the records of Yueyang customs by Zhou Chu at that time, "wild rice leaves are used to wrap millet,... Boiled, cooked and eaten from May 5 to the summer solstice. One zongzi and one millet." During the northern and Southern Dynasties, miscellaneous zongzi appeared. The rice is mixed with poultry and animal meat, chestnut, red jujube, red bean, etc., and the variety is increased. Zongzi is also used as a gift for communication.
In the Tang Dynasty, the rice used in zongzi was "white as jade", and its shape appeared conical and rhombic. Japanese documents have recorded "Tang zongzi" During the Song Dynasty, there were "preserved rice dumplings", that is, fruits into rice dumplings.
Poet Su Dongpo has a poem "see red bayberry in zongzi at times". At this time, there were advertisements with zongzi piled into pavilions, wooden cars, cattle and horses, indicating that it was very fashionable to eat Zongzi in the Song Dynasty. In the yuan and Ming Dynasties, the wrapping material of zongzi has changed from wild rice leaves to Ruo leaves. Later, zongzi wrapped with reed leaves appeared. The additional materials have appeared bean paste, pork, pine nut kernel, jujube, walnut and so on.
Zongzi not only has many shapes and varieties, but also has different flavors, mainly sweet and salty. The sweetness includes Baishui zongzi, red bean zongzi, broad bean zongzi, jujube zongzi, rose zongzi, melon kernel zongzi, bean paste lard zongzi, jujube mud lard zongzi, etc. There are pork dumplings, ham dumplings, sausage dumplings, shrimp dumplings, diced meat dumplings and so on, but pork dumplings are more.
In addition, there are assorted rice dumplings, bean paste rice dumplings and mushroom rice dumplings with southern flavor, as well as "Shuangpin rice dumplings" with one sweet end, one salty end and one rice dumpling These zongzi are accompanied by different tastes of zongzi, which makes the zongzi family colorful.