The origin of Zhang Zhongjing’s dumplings is as follows:

It is said that when Zhang Zhongjing was the prefect of Changsha, he often cured diseases for the people. One year when the local plague was prevalent, he built a big pot at the yamen gate and gave up medicine to save people. He was deeply loved by the people of Changsha. After Zhang Zhongjing retired from Changsha and returned to his hometown, he happened to catch up with the winter solstice and walked to the bank of Baihe River in his hometown. He saw many poor people suffering from hunger and cold, and their ears were rotten by the frost. It turns out that typhoid fever was prevalent at that time, and many people died from the disease.

He felt very uncomfortable and was determined to save them. When Zhang Zhongjing returned home, there were so many people seeking medical treatment that he was very busy, but he always kept in mind the poor people whose ears were rotten by the cold. He imitated the method in Changsha and asked his disciples to set up a medical shed and a large pot on an open space in Dongguan, Nanyang. They opened it on the winter solstice and gave medicine to the poor to treat their injuries.

Zhang Zhongjing continued to give medicine until New Year's Eve. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people celebrate the New Year and the recovery of rotten ears. They make New Year's food like Jiao Er and eat it on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. People call this food "dumplings", "dumplings" or "flat food" and eat it on the winter solstice and the first day of the new year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened shed medicine and cured patients.

Zhang Zhongjing

Zhang Zhongjing, Mingji, courtesy name Zhongjing, was born in Nanyang (Nanyang, Henan Province) in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He studied medical books painstakingly since he was a child, learned from others' strengths, and became the founder of traditional Chinese medicine. He wrote "Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases", which is a collection of medical achievements and is 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."