The record of zongzi in historical materials began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, zongzi was wrapped into a corner called "corn millet" The local custom of the Western Jin Dynasty said: "The ancients cooked it with millet leaves, with sharp corners, such as the shape of a palm leaf." He also said that this kind of food is eaten every summer solstice and Dragon Boat Festival. According to ancient records, as early as the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, millet and chicken were sacrificed to ancestors in the summer of solstice. Later, the sacrifice of Zongzi to Qu Yuan in the Dragon Boat Festival was just an evolution and development of the original custom.

Nowadays, Zongzi has developed into a folk flavor food that can be seen all year round. Because of the different eating habits in different places, Zongzi has different flavors in the north and south, but the famous dragon boat Zongzi is produced in Zhengzhou, Central Plains, both in the north and south, and has a strong flavor. For example, there are pineapple jiaozi, black glutinous rice peanut jiaozi, mung bean jiaozi, chestnut jiaozi, osmanthus red bean jiaozi, purple glutinous rice jiaozi, candied dates and yam jiaozi, coix seed jiaozi, barbecued pork dumplings, chestnut pork dumplings, mushroom dumplings, Taiwanese classic meat dumplings, Hong Kong-style abalone dumplings, Cantonese Yao Zhu dumplings, Jiaxing egg yolk meat dumplings, Soviet-style Jinsha Lily dumplings and Beijing-style dumplings.

Nowadays, zongzi is still wrapped in leaves with glutinous rice according to the origin of eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival. The sharp corners are like the shape of the heart of a palm leaf.

The implication of eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival

1: Drive away the dragon

There is such a record in the Elementary Book: During the Jianwu period of the Han Dynasty, Changsha people dreamed of a man who called himself Dr. San Lv (the official name of Qu Yuan) at night and said to him, "Everything you sacrificed was stolen by the dragon in the river. You can wrap it in mugwort leaves and tie it with colorful silk thread in the future. Dragons are most afraid of these two things, so you don't have to worry about being destroyed by dragons! " So, people made "corn millet" with "leaves wrapped in millet". From generation to generation, it has gradually developed into the Dragon Boat Festival food in China.

2. In memory of Qu Yuan

According to legend, in 340 BC, Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet and doctor of Chu, faced the pain of national subjugation. On May 5th, he threw a big stone into Guluo River with grief and indignation. In order to prevent fish and shrimp from damaging his body, people throw rice into the river with bamboo tubes. In the future, people will put rice in bamboo tubes and throw it into the river to pay homage to Qu Yuan. This is the origin of China's earliest zongzi-"tube zongzi".

Qu Yuan was a Chu man in the Warring States Period. Seeing that the country was going to die, he threw himself into the river and died on May 5th. People rowed boats to salvage his body and scattered rice in the river to prevent fish and shrimp from invading Qu Yuan. So there was the Dragon Boat Festival, dragon boat races and eating zongzi. Another little-known version is that Qu Yuan was upright before his death. His political opponents chased his boat in the river, killed him, put him in a sack and went deep into the river. In order to cover up the crime, he forged the suicide note of "Huai Sha", and it was rumored that Qu Yuan committed suicide. However, the people are quite familiar with it, so there is also the Dragon Boat Festival. Rowing means that young people chase Qu Yuan to make zongzi, and it is a metaphor that villains tie Qu Yuan up and throw him into the water.

3. Qiu Zi

During the Dragon Boat Festival, people will give each other nine zongzi, which means begging children. Jiuzi Zongzi is a kind of Zongzi, that is, nine Zongzi are connected in a string, big and small, the big one is above and the small one is below, with different shapes and very beautiful. And nine colors of silk thread tied together to form colorful. Jiuzi Zongzi is mostly used as a gift for relatives and friends, such as a gift from a mother to her married daughter and a gift from her mother-in-law to her wedding. Because "Zongzi" is homophonic for "neutron", there is a folk custom that eating "Zongzi" can give birth to sons. "Zongzi" is the homonym of "many sons", which means that people are prosperous.

4. fame and fortune

Because the sound of "Zongzi" and "Zhong" is similar, it means "in the scenic spot" and it means fame in the ancient bachelor's examination. Usually, ancient imperial examinations are held in autumn, so during the Dragon Boat Festival, people who want to win the first place in fame can be suggested to eat zongzi.

5: Guangzong Yaozu

Because the sounds of "Zongzi" and "Zong" are similar, eating Zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival means "honoring ancestors", so every family eats Zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival.

The custom of eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival

Eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival is now only known to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan. According to legend, in 340 BC, Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet and doctor of Chu, faced the pain of national subjugation. On May 5th, he threw a big stone into Guluo River with grief and indignation. In order to prevent fish and shrimp from damaging his body, people throw rice into the river with bamboo tubes. In the future, people will put rice in bamboo tubes and throw it into the river to pay homage to Qu Yuan. This is the origin of China's earliest zongzi-"tube zongzi".

Why did you wrap zongzi with wormwood leaves or reed leaves and lotus leaves later? There is such a record in the Elementary Book: During the Jianwu period of the Han Dynasty, Changsha people dreamed of a man who called himself Dr. San Lv (the official name of Qu Yuan) at night and said to him, "Everything you sacrificed was stolen by the dragon in the river, so you can wrap it with mugwort leaves and tie it with colorful silk thread in the future. Dragons are most afraid of these two things. " As a result, people made "corn millet" with "leaves wrapped in millet", which was passed down from generation to generation and gradually developed into the Dragon Boat Festival food in China.

However, according to experts' research, Zongzi is just a common folk food, which was not fixed at the Dragon Boat Festival at first. It is said that eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival is a sacrifice to Qu Yuan, which is formed by the attachment of future generations and only reflects the wishes of the people.

In fact, the origin of eating zongzi (the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day) is earlier than eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival, which was formed to commemorate the meson push of Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period. Until now, many places still have the folk custom of Tomb-Sweeping Day eating zongzi the day before.

According to records, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, millet was wrapped into horns by leaves of zinia latifolia, which was called "horny millet". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, millet was soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contained alkali, it was wrapped in leaves into a quadrangle and cooked, which became the jiaozi of Guangdong Alkaline Water.

In Jin Dynasty, Zongzi was officially designated as Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, in addition to glutinous rice, Alpinia oxyphylla was added as the raw material for making zongzi, and the boiled zongzi was called "educational zongzi". According to "Yueyang Local Customs", "custom wraps millet with leaves, and cooks it thoroughly. From May 5 to the solstice in summer, there is a zongzi and a millet. " During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, miscellaneous zongzi appeared. Rice is mixed with animal meat, chestnuts, red dates, red beans and so on. And there are more and more varieties. Zongzi is also used as a gift for communication.

In the Tang Dynasty, the rice used for zongzi was "white as jade", and its shape appeared conical and rhombic. There is a record of "Tang Zongzi" in Japanese literature. In the Song Dynasty, there were already "candied zongzi", that is, fruits were put into zongzi. The poet Su Dongpo has a poem "See Yangmei in Zongzi". At this time, there were also advertisements for building pavilions and wooden chariots and horses with zongzi, indicating that eating zongzi was very fashionable in the Song Dynasty. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the wrapping material of zongzi changed from leaves to leaves. Later, zongzi wrapped in reed leaves appeared, and additional materials such as bean paste, pork, pine nuts, dates and walnuts appeared, and the varieties were more colorful.

Zongzi not only has many shapes and varieties, but also has different tastes in different places, mainly sweet and salty. Sweet dumplings include white dumplings, red bean dumplings, broad bean dumplings, red date dumplings, rose dumplings, melon seeds dumplings, red bean paste lard dumplings, jujube paste lard dumplings and so on. There are pork jiaozi, ham jiaozi, sausage jiaozi, shrimp dumplings, diced pork jiaozi and so on, but pork jiaozi is more common. In addition, there are assorted zongzi, red bean paste zongzi and mushroom zongzi. Southern flavor, and a sweet and salty "double dumplings". These zongzi have different tastes, which makes the zongzi family colorful.