During the Spring and Autumn Period in 636 B.C., Li Ji, a favorite concubine of Duke Xian of Jin, had evil intentions and attempted to murder the crown prince Shen Sheng and the duke Chong Er, supporting the young duke Mo Qi to succeed the throne. When Jie Zi Pui and other loyal officials learned of this, they protected Chong Er and left Jin for refuge.
One day, they were lost in the mountains of Wei, tired and hungry, and could not walk any further. When Chong Er was dying of food deprivation, Jie Zi Pui went to a ravine, cut a piece of meat from his leg, and boiled it with some wild vegetables to make soup for Chong Er.
When Chong Er ate the meat and realized that it was from the leg of Jie Zi Tui, he was very touched and said with tears in his eyes, "I will never forget the great kindness of 'cutting off my share to serve the king,'" and promised not to forget it when he succeeded to the throne in the future. Jie Zi Tui replied, "I don't ask you to repay me later, but only ask you to care for the people and be a clear-minded ruler."
Jie Zi Tui and his ministers followed Chong Er into exile for nineteen years, and with the help of his countrymen and the Qin state, Chong Er returned to his country and assumed the throne. When the car was about to enter the capital, Chong Er threw away the broken mat he had used in exile. Jie Zi Tui picked up the broken mat and quietly went back to Pei Jie's village in Xia County to honor his mother.
Chong Er finally became the king of the country, and became Duke Wen of Jin, one of the famous Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history. When Duke Wen of Jin came to power, he rewarded his ministers with high salaries and high offices, but he forgot about Jie Zi Tui.
After being reminded by some ministers, Duke Wen realized that he was very remorseful and felt sorry for his ministers, so he ordered the whole country to search for Jie Zi push. He ordered the whole country to search for him. Jie Zi push did not want to be a government official any more, so he took his mother with him to a cave in the beautiful Mianshan Mountain, where he lived in seclusion and ate cold food with his clothes on his back. The Duke of Jin soon found out about this, and immediately led his ministers to Mianshan to search for him.
Jin Wendong and his party to the Mianshan, sent people up the mountain called, only the valley echo, do not see the meson launched Lin meet. At this time, the Duke of Jin to be anxious to see jiezi push, think of him as a filial son, if the fire burned Mianshan, jiezi push to save his mother's life, will certainly carry his mother out of the mountain. As a result, the fire burned for many days, and there was no sign of Jie Zi Tui.
The Duke of Jin Wen led people into the mountains to look for the remains of his mother and son, but he could not find them, and then someone found a half a broken mat in a cave in the middle of the mountain.
Looking at it, the Duke of Jin felt very guilty and sorrowful, and it was too late to repent. Under the present change Mianshan for the mesa, a hillock as his nominal fiefdom - jiegongling, will be jiezitui mother and son of the cave converted into jiegongshrine, and set up "jiemiao" at the foot of Mianshan in the cypress forests of the village of the south of the bergou, and ordered to be renamed the jingyang county jiexiu county.
He also ordered his entourage to pick up a few pieces of wood from the burnt forest and made himself a pair of wooden shoes. Every day when he went to court, he would put on the wooden shoes and walk in the palace hall, and the sound of the wooden shoes reminded him to look at his feet as if he were seeing Jie Zi Tui, and later people called their most loyal and respected friend "Foot".
Duke Wen of Jin burned Mianshan on the day of the Qingming Festival. Duke Wen of Jin was very sentimental, so that the whole country shall not raise the fire smoke, and the Qingming Festival this day is also known as the "cold food festival". Later generations for the memory of respect for jiezi push, every "Qingming" are not fire, cold food in January, and then gradually reduced to three days. The "Cold Food Festival" has been passed down since then.
The next year, the Qingming Festival, the Duke of Jin led his ministers to Mianshan in the temple to pay homage to Jie Zi Tui, and saw the burning forest on the hillside of the burned willows came back to life. Duke Wen of Jin thought that the willow tree was transformed by Jie Zi Tui, and he gave the willow tree the name Qingming Willow. He asked the people of Jin to hang willow branches on their doors, plant willows on their tombs, and go to Mianshan Mountain to express their feelings of nostalgia.
And the cold food before one is "cooking day", people have to do a lot of steamed cakes, called "Zi push steamed cakes"; there are also people with flour and date paste made into a swallow-shaped cake (triangular pie), and then strung up with willow hanging in the door according to the drying, called "Zi push Yan". The "Zi Push Yan".
Every year on the Ching Ming Festival, not only in the houses (behind the village) planting willow, but also young men and women to go up the mountain trekking, and to wear willow woven willow crown or willow ring on the head. At that time, there was a ballad that said, "If you don't wear a willow at Qingming, your face will become a white head."