Jiaozi's earliest name in history is Joule, which is a popular food first invented by medical sage Zhang Zhongjing. The story of his "Quhan Joule Decoction" has spread among the people to this day. Zhang Zhongjing was a native of Nanyang, Henan Province in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Since childhood, he has studied medical books hard and learned from others, becoming the founder of traditional Chinese medicine. Treatise on Febrile Diseases, written by him, is a masterpiece of doctors and is regarded as a classic by doctors in past dynasties. It is the first medical monograph in China to establish the law of syndrome differentiation and treatment from theory to practice, and 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 survive;" If you retreat, you will save the people; " You can't be a good doctor and you can't be a good doctor. "Zhang Zhongjing not only has good medical skills, but also has noble medical ethics. He took the poor and the rich seriously and saved countless lives. He is called "the sage of medicine and the founder of Fang". "
Zhang Zhongjing was in turmoil at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and fought for years. "The people abandoned agriculture", and most urban farms became wilderness. People are displaced and hungry. Plague broke out in various places, especially in Luoyang, Nanyang and Huiji (Shaoxing). "Every family has the pain of zombies, and every room has a wail;" According to legend, when Zhang Zhongjing was the magistrate of Changsha, he often treated the people. One year, when the local plague was prevalent, he made a cauldron at the entrance of Yamen, giving up medicine to save people, which was deeply loved by Changsha people. After Zhang Zhongjing retired from Changsha, he just caught up with the winter solstice and walked to the shore of the Baihe River in his hometown. He saw that many poor people were hungry and cold, and their ears were frozen. It turned out that typhoid fever was prevalent at that time and many people died. He was very upset and determined to treat them. When Zhang Zhongjing came home, many people sought medical treatment. He is as busy as a bee, but he always remembers those poor people with frozen ears. He followed Changsha's example and told his disciples to build a medical shed and cauldron in an open space in Dongguan, Nanyang, and open it on the day of winter solstice to send medicine to the poor to treat their injuries.
Zhang Zhongjing's specific medicine is called "Quhan Joule Decoction", which is a summary of more than 300 years of clinical practice in Han Dynasty. Its practice is to put mutton, pepper and some cold-dispelling medicinal materials into a pot and cook them, then take them out and chop them up, and make them into ear-shaped Joules with dough bags, and then put them into a pot and distribute them to patients seeking medical treatment. Everyone has two charming ears and a bowl of soup. After eating Quhan decoction, people feel feverish all over, their qi and blood are smooth, and their ears are warm. People eat from the solstice of winter to New Year's Eve, fighting typhoid fever and curing frozen ears.
Zhang Zhongjing didn't give up taking medicine until New Year's Eve. On the first day of New Year's Day, people celebrate the New Year and the recovery of rotten ears. They cook food for the New Year like burnt ears and eat it on the first morning. People call this kind of food "jiaozi", "jiaozi" or "flat food" and eat it on the solstice of winter and the first day of New Year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened the shed to deliver medicine and treat patients.
Jiaozi has been out 1800 years. As early as the Three Kingdoms period, this kind of food was mentioned in the book Guangya written by Wei. But when jiaozi cooked it, he didn't fish it out and eat it alone, but mixed it with soup and ate it in a bowl. By the Tang Dynasty, jiaozi had become almost like jiaozi now, so it was fished out and eaten on a plate alone. In the Tang Dynasty, jiaozi was called "prison pill", jiaozi was called "soup prison pill" and steamed dumplings were called "cage prison pill". This name was used before the Song Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, the names were messy, and they were also called "Fenjiao", "Flat Food", "Dumpling", "Joule", "Water Snack" and "Boiled Cake". For example, "Wan Bu Miscellaneous Notes" written by Shen Bang during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty recorded: "On the first day of the New Year, New Year's greetings were made, and food was made on plaques". Liu Ruoyu's Meditation Records records that "eating fruit snacks on the first day of the Lunar New Year is also called eating with a plaque" ("eating with a plaque" is often used as "ping" now). Collectively known as "Jiaozi", it was probably in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.
The origin of eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival;
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, and people have the habit of eating zongzi. The legend is to commemorate Qu Yuan, the minister of Chu State during the Warring States Period.
Qu Yuan is a great patriotic poet in China. He actively advocated that Chu and Qi should unite against Qin. His opinion was not adopted, but was dismissed and sent to a remote place.
When Chu was about to perish, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River.
After Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, Chu people threw delicious food into the river to prevent fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs from eating Qu Yuan's body. In this way, year after year, in order to commemorate this patriotic poet, every Dragon Boat Festival, people throw food into the river to offer sacrifices to Qu Yuan.
One night, an old man dreamed of Qu Yuan in a dream and asked him, "Did you eat so much food we threw you?" Qu Yuan said, "The rice you gave me was eaten by those fish, shrimps, turtles and crabs." The old man asked, "How can I not be eaten by them?"
Qu Yuan said, "You wrap rice with bamboo leaves and make it into a pointed dumpling shaped like a water chestnut. They thought it was water chestnut and dared not eat it. "
On the Dragon Boat Festival the following year, people put sharp zongzi into the Miluo River as Qu Yuan said. However, after the Dragon Boat Festival, Qu Yuan had a dream for the old man and said, "Thank you for sending me so many zongzi that I ate them all. But most of them are still eaten by fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs. "
The old man asked Qu Yuan, "What else can we do?"
Qu Yuan said: "The boat delivering zongzi should be dressed like Jackie Chan, because fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs are under the jurisdiction of dragons and dare not eat the dragon king."
Since then, every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, people paddle dragon boats to the Miluo River to deliver zongzi. This is the origin of eating zongzi and rowing dragon boats on the Dragon Boat Festival.
Mooncakes usually refer to cakes that people eat in the Mid-Autumn Festival, which are usually round.
According to historical records, General Li Jing conquered Xiongnu and returned to China on August 15th. Tang Gaozu took the Hu cake presented by Turpan merchants, smiled and pointed to the moon and said, "Hu cake should invite toads.". In the Northern Song Dynasty, this kind of cake was called "palace cake", which was popular in the court, but also spread to the people. At that time, it was commonly known as "small cake" and "moon group". Later, it evolved into a circle, meaning reunion and beauty. According to Luo Zhong's Notes, on the Mid-Autumn Festival, Tang Xizong ordered the chef and HongLing to send cakes to the new Jinshi. But it wasn't called moon cakes at that time.
The word moon cake was first seen in Liang Lumeng by Wu in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, moon cakes were diamond-shaped, chrysanthemum cakes and plum cakes coexisted, and they were "available at any time and can be called at will without missing customers". It can be seen that moon cakes at this time are not only eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. As for the origin of the word moon cake, there is no textual research. However, Su Dongpo, a famous scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty, left a poem "Little cakes are like chewing the moon, and there is fullness in the crisp", which may be the origin of the name of moon cakes and the basis of their practice.
There have been many records about moon cakes since the Ming Dynasty. At this time, the moon cakes are round and only eaten in the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is the main offering of the popular Mid-Autumn Festival in the Ming Dynasty. "A Brief View of the Imperial Capital" says: "On August 15th, the moon is sacrificed, and the fruit cakes are round." "Home moonlight is located on the moon, worshiping the moon, then burning moonlight paper and withdrawing the supply, and the scattered family is over. There is a reward for mooncake fruit, and the cake diameter is two feet. "
The widely circulated story that Zhu Yuanzhang used moon cakes to convey the news of the August 15th Uprising is inconsistent with the historical facts, because Zhu Yuanzhang did not lead the Uprising, but joined the new team and married Guo's adopted daughter, the latter being. If the legend of using moon cakes to convey the news of the uprising is true, it is likely that Zhang Shicheng did it. But this legend proves on the other hand that the Yuan Dynasty had the custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The origin of eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival;
Moon cakes symbolize reunion, which should have started in the Ming Dynasty. If we look at the information about moon cakes and Mid-Autumn Festival in the Ming Dynasty, we should be able to see the historical track of moon cake reunion: after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the whole family will sit together and share moon cakes and fruits (offerings of the moon). Because moon cakes are also round and shared by the whole family, it gradually forms the implication that moon cakes represent family reunion.