Rice cakes have a history of more than 2,000 years, and they are very famous in Southeast Asia, Europe and America. There is also an allusion here. During the Spring and Autumn Period, He Lv ordered Wu Zixu to build a big city in He Lv. After the completion, a grand banquet was held to celebrate. Only Wu Zixu is unhappy. He predicted that the king of Wu was arrogant and did not take precautions against Gou Jian and Fan Li, the king of Yue, and the country would perish sooner or later. After returning to the camp, he secretly told his entourage: After my death, if the country is in trouble and the people are hungry and cold, you can dig three feet under Xiangmen (one of the six main gates of Suzhou) to get food. As expected, Wu Zixu was later framed and killed, and Wu was wiped out by the Vietnamese army. At this time, the capital is short of food and starving everywhere. Followers led the people to Xiangmen to tear down the city and dig the ground, only to find that the bricks of Xiangmen were not made of clay, but made of glutinous rice ground into powder. Since then, in order to commemorate and remember Wu Zixu's achievements and loyalty, people eat rice cakes in the Spring Festival.

As a kind of food, rice cakes have a long history in China. 1974, archaeologists found well-preserved rice seeds at Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang province (Hemudu matriarchal social site in Yuyao) more than 7,000 years ago, indicating that our ancestors began to grow rice as early as 7,000 years ago. People in Han Dynasty called rice cakes "rice cakes", "fish bait" and "glutinous rice cakes". In the book Dialect of Han Dynasty, the title of "Gao" was popular in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. The ancients also had a development process from rice cakes to rice cakes. In the 6th century A.D., the cookbook Historical Records contained the method of making "white cocoon candy" for rice cakes, which said: "If the rice is cooked thoroughly and hotter than that in Chu Jiu, it must be cooked extremely well so as not to have rice grains ..." That is, after the glutinous rice is steamed, it is boiled into rice and then cut into peach kernels. As early as the Liao Dynasty, it was said that on the first day of the first month in Beijing, every family had the custom of eating rice cakes. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, rice cakes have developed into perennial snacks in the market, with different flavors in the north and south. The rice cake is delicious, sweet and mellow, and has a strong historical flavor.

[Edit this paragraph] The origin of rice cakes

There is an old legend about the origin of Spring Festival rice cakes. In ancient times, there was a monster named Nian who lived in the deep mountains and forests all the year round. When he is hungry, he catches other animals to satisfy his hunger. But in the severe winter, most animals will hide and rest. When you are hungry, you go down the mountain to hurt the people, rob people for food, and make the people miserable. Later, there was a clever tribe called "Gaozu". Every winter, when the monster was expected to go down the mountain for food, he cooked a lot of food with food in advance, twisted it into strips and put it outside the door, while people hid at home. When "Nian" came, people couldn't find anyone to eat. When they were hungry, they filled their stomachs with food strips made by people and went back to the mountains after eating. When people saw the monster go, they all went out to congratulate each other, glad that they had escaped the "Year Pass" and were safe and ready to plough again in spring. In this way, year after year, this method of avoiding animal harm has been handed down. Because the grain bars are made of high, in order to feed the year, the year and the height are linked together, which is called the rice cake (homophonic).