Zongzi has a very long history. It was originally used as sacrificial food. Zongzi is used for sacrifice, not for the original Qu Yuan. Zongzi was originally used to worship ancestors and gods. Commenting on the Temple System in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Fan said, "Recommend millet in midsummer." This shows that there is a custom of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods during the summer solstice. Horn millet, that is, trumpet-shaped zongzi. The so-called' horn' means that the highest sacrifice in ancient times was cattle, and the shape of zongzi represented the horn; Millet is a yellow glutinous rice. "Corn" made of grain represents "Yang"; The' Zizania latifolia' (zongye) used for millet is' Yin', which is a combination of Yin and Yang, meaning to exorcise evil spirits and pray for peace. "
folklore
According to Tang Shenyaji's Biography of Qu Yuan, people miss Qu Yuan very much after he jumped into the river. On the fifth day of May, he puts food in a bamboo tube and throws it into the water for sacrifice. During the Jianwu period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a man named Qu Hui in Changsha. In broad daylight, he suddenly met Qu Yuan, a doctor in San Lv, and told him that the food used for the sacrifice had been stolen by the dragon, and that if he threw it again in the future, he would wrap it with leaves of Polygonum hydropiper and colored thread. These things are afraid of dragons. He won't eat them. District Hui told the villagers about this adventure, and the villagers made zongzi carefully according to Qu Yuan's instructions. This custom has been passed down to this day. This magical legend was first written by Wu Yun, a writer in the Liang Dynasty, and was included in Continued Harmony. It shows that Zongzi is a sacrificial food for people to commemorate Qu Yuan, and later it became the most important holiday food for the Dragon Boat Festival. As for why it should be thrown into the water, one is for Qu Yuan, and the other is to throw it into the river to feed the dragons. That is to say, Zongzi is specially used to feed Xiaolong, lest it hurt Qu Yuan's body.
Why did you wrap zongzi with wormwood leaves or reed leaves and lotus leaves later? There is a record in Beginner's 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. As a result, people wrapped the millet with the leaves of Zizania latifolia and made it into corn millet, which was passed down from generation to generation and gradually developed into the Dragon Boat Festival food in China.
Another way of saying the origin of zongzi: commemorative tapir
Folklorists in Shanxi believe that the origin of zongzi is related to the story of the ancestors governing water in the ancient Sanjin Dynasty.
As an ancient historical figure, according to the textual research of Shanxi historians, Taiqian was a water conservancy official in the era of Emperor Zhuan Xu before Dayu.
At that time, the front of the stage was fighting for water control, and the north and south rushed to divert water, and all the way to Lingshi Mountain was blocked. Tai Qian led his troops to fight on Lingshi Mountain, and the drainage project was extremely difficult. People eat and live in the mountains day and night and dig mountains.
At that time, the water was full and there was no boat. When Wang Yu was in charge of water control, he walked around on foot, so he didn't enter the house three times. According to textual research, the water control in front of the stage was earlier than that in Dayu, and the water control in front of the stage was mainly based on water division. The history and legend of water control are only circulated in Shanxi, and Dayu is in charge of the Yellow River, so Dayu's footprint and achievements in water control are greater than Taiqian's. ) Every family on both sides of the Fenhe River has laborers who cooperate with Taiwan Province in water control. In order to ensure the timely delivery of grain to the construction site and not delay and affect people's food safety, people have come up with a way to transport grain by water. The grain is wrapped in bamboo barrels and reed leaves, boarded a raft and sent downstream to the water conservancy workers. On the way, many foods were also eaten by fish and shrimp in the water. With the flow of population, this kind of food soon spread to the Han nationality.
Now in Shanxi, on May 5th, people pay homage to Fenshentai, and Zongzi is among the sacrifices. The origin of zongzi and its historical evolution.
In the spring and autumn period, millet was wrapped in water bamboo leaves into horns, which were called "horny millet"; Rice packed in bamboo tubes is sealed and baked, which is called "tube zongzi".
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty: plant ash soaked millet, and because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped in leaves into a quadrangle, and cooked to make Cheng Guangdong alkaline zongzi.
Jin Dynasty: Zongzi was officially designated as Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, in addition to rice, Alpinia oxyphylla was added to make zongzi, and the boiled zongzi was called "educational zongzi". Southern and Northern Dynasties: Miscellaneous Zongzi appeared. The variety has increased, and the rice is mixed with animal meat, chestnuts, red dates and red beans, and the wrapped zongzi is also exchanged as a gift.
Tang dynasty: the rice used for zongzi is "white as jade", and the shape of zongzi appears conical and rhombic. There is a record of "Da Tang Zongzi" in Japanese literature.
Song Dynasty: "Ai Xiang Zongzi" and "Candied Zongzi" with mugwort leaves. See Su Dongpo's poem "See Yang Meizi 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.
Yuan dynasty: the wrapping material of zongzi changed from wild vegetable leaves to wild vegetable leaves, which broke through the seasonal restriction of wild vegetable leaves.
Ming Dynasty: 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.
Qing Dynasty: "Ham Zongzi" appeared.
Today, there are thousands of kinds of zongzi. Nowadays, glutinous rice is usually wrapped in glutinous rice shells, but the connotation and color depend on local specialties and customs. The more famous ones are longan, meat, crystal, lotus seeds, candied fruit, chestnut, spicy, sauerkraut, ham and salted eggs.
Now everyone knows the origin of zongzi. To put it bluntly, it is mainly to show our respect for Qu Yuan. This meaning is the most popular now. Of course, there are several other folklores that are also very meaningful. You can learn more about it.
Expanding: Types of Zongzi in Dragon Boat Festival in Different Regions
Guangdong zongzi
Guangdong Zongzi is big and unique in shape. In addition to fresh meat zongzi and red bean paste zongzi, there are assorted zongzi with diced chicken, diced duck, barbecued pork, egg yolk, mushrooms and mung bean paste as fillings. Cantonese-style zongzi, represented by Xinghualou and Xinya, has a soft taste and a strong flavor. Its shape is flat at the bottom, square and pentagonal, with one corner facing upwards and the rest extending in all directions. There are many varieties in jiaozi, including chestnuts, fresh meat, egg yolk and mushrooms. Jiaozi has roast duck, mushrooms, chestnuts, fresh meat, egg yolk, rice kernels, etc., and others include jiaozi with alkaline water, jiaozi with bean paste, jiaozi with fresh meat, jiaozi with fresh egg yolk, and jiaozi with red beans.
Minnan zongzi
The roasted meat jiaozi and soda jiaozi in Xiamen and Quanzhou are famous at home and abroad. The rice of roasted dumplings must be the best. Pork is pork belly, which is pickled and fragrant first, plus mushrooms, shrimps, lotus seeds, braised pork soup, sugar and so on. When eating, dip in garlic paste, mustard, red hot sauce, radish acid and other spices, sweet and smooth, oily but not greasy.
Ningbo zongzi
Zhejiang Ningbo Zongzi is quadrangular, and there are varieties such as alkaline water Zongzi, red bean Zongzi and red date Zongzi. Its representative variety, Sour Water Zongzi, is made by adding a proper amount of sour water to glutinous rice and wrapping it with old yellow leaves. Glutinous rice turns pale yellow after cooking, and can be dipped in sugar, which is fragrant and delicious.
Jiaxing zongzi
Jiaxing zongzi is rectangular, with fresh meat, bean paste, eight treasures and other varieties. For example, in jiaozi, fresh meat, there is often a piece of fat in lean meat. After jiaozi is cooked, the fat oil seeps into the rice, which is fat but not greasy.
Beijing zongzi
Beijing Zongzi is a representative variety of northern Zongzi, with a small head and an oblique quadrangle. In rural areas in the northern suburbs, people are used to eating rhubarb zongzi, which is sticky and fragrant, and the stuffing is mostly red dates and red bean paste.
Other famous zongzi are spicy zongzi from Sichuan and Hubei, pickled zongzi from Guizhou and salted egg zongzi from northern Jiangsu. In addition, Shen Dacheng, Jiaxing Zongzi Store, Wufangzhai and other traditional specialty stores supply "various" Zongzi, such as red bean paste, fresh meat, white rice, red dates and red beans, and fresh egg yolk. Shen Dacheng pioneered curry chicken zongzi, which is colorful. All kinds of zongzi are different in variety, shape, taste and color. There are 450 grams of big zongzi wrapped in Cantonese pillows, but only 25 grams of mini zongzi.