The origin of eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice

Every year on the Winter Solstice in the lunar calendar, dumplings are an essential holiday meal for rich and poor alike. A proverb goes: "On October 1st, when the winter solstice comes, every household eats dumplings." This custom was left in memory of the "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing who gave up medicine during the winter solstice.

Zhang Zhongjing was a native of Gengdong, Nanyang. He wrote Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases, which was a collection of medical achievements and was regarded as a classic by doctors of all ages. Zhang Zhongjing has a famous saying: "If you advance, you will save the world; if you retreat, you will save the people; if you cannot be a good prime minister, you should also be a good doctor." During the Eastern Han Dynasty, he served as the prefect of Changsha, visiting patients and administering medicine, and practicing medicine in the lobby. Later, he resolutely resigned and returned to his hometown to treat his neighbors. It was winter when he returned home. He saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River were sallow and thin, hungry and cold, and many of them had their ears rotten by the cold. So he asked his disciples to set up a medical tent and a large pot in Dongguan, Nanyang, and make "Quhan Jiaoer Decoction" to treat chilblains on the winter solstice. He put mutton, chili peppers and some cold-repelling medicinal herbs in a pot and boiled them. Then he took out the mutton and the medicinal herbs, chopped them into pieces, and used bread to make ear-shaped "jiao ears". After cooking, he distributed them to those who came to seek medicine. Each person has two "Jiao Er" and a large bowl of broth. People ate "Jiao Er" and drank "Qu Han Tang", their whole bodies became warm, their ears felt hot, and their frostbitten ears were cured. Later generations imitated the appearance of "Jiao Er" and wrapped them into food, also called "dumplings" or "flat food".

Eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice is to remember the kindness of the "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing's "Quhan Jiao Er Soup". There is still a folk saying in Nanyang that "if you don't bring dumpling bowls during the winter solstice, your ears will freeze off and no one will care".