Joule. Jiaozi was originally called "Joule", but it also had different names in different dynasties. For example, it was called Jiaozi in the Song Dynasty, Bian Shi in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and Jiaozi in the Qing Dynasty.
According to legend, jiaozi was first invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a medical sage at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with a history of 1800 years. As a traditional classic food in China, jiaozi symbolizes "auspiciousness" and "reunion" since ancient times, and is one of the important components of the Chinese nation's long-standing food culture.
Related legends and stories:
One:
Jiaozi, formerly known as Joule, is said to have been first invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a medical saint in China. The story of his "Quhan Joule Decoction" has spread among the people to this day.
There is a folk saying "delicious but not as good as jiaozi".
According to legend, when Zhang Zhongjing was the magistrate of Changsha, he often treated the people. One year, when the local plague was prevalent, he built a cauldron at the entrance of Yamen, and sacrificed his life to save people, which won the love of Changsha people. After Zhang Zhongjing retired from Changsha, he happened to catch up with the winter solstice and walked to the bank of the Baihe River in his hometown. He saw that many poor people were hungry and cold, and their ears were frozen. It turned out that typhoid fever was prevalent at that time and many people died. He was very upset and determined to treat them. When Zhang Zhongjing came home, many people sought medical treatment. He is as busy as a bee, but he always remembers the poor people with frozen ears. He followed Changsha's example and told his disciples to build a medicine shed and medicine jar in an open space in Dongguan, Nanyang, and open it on the day of winter solstice to deliver medicine and treat the poor.
Zhang Zhongjing's "Quhan Joule Decoction" is a summary of more than 300 years of clinical practice in Han Dynasty. Its practice is to boil mutton and some cold-expelling herbs in a pot, take them out and chop them up after cooking, make them into ear-shaped Joules with flour bags, and then cook them in a pot and distribute them to patients begging for drugs. Everyone has two charming ears and a bowl of soup. After eating Quhan decoction, people feel warm all over, their blood is smooth and their ears are warm. The common people eat from the solstice of winter until New Year's Eve to resist typhoid fever and cure their frozen ears.
Zhang Zhongjing didn't give up medicine until New Year's Eve. On the first day of New Year's Day, people celebrate the New Year and the recovery of rotten ears. They cook New Year's food like burnt ears and eat it on the first morning. People call this kind of food "jiaozi", "jiaozi" or "flat food" and eat it on the solstice of winter and the first day of the New Year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened the shed to deliver medicine and cure patients.
Zhang Zhongjing's history is nearly 1800 years ago, but his story of "Quhan Joule Decoction" has been widely circulated among the people. On the solstice of winter and the first day of New Year's Day, people eat jiaozi, and they still remember Zhang Zhongjing's kindness in their hearts. Today, we don't need charming ears to treat frozen rotten ears, but jiaozi has become the most common and favorite food for people.
Two:
One is to commemorate Pangu's creation and end the mixed state, and the other is to take it as a homonym with "chaos", which means "five grains are abundant" In addition, it is said that eating jiaozi's folk language is related to Nu Wa's making people. When Nuwa's soil causes people, because of the cold weather, the ears of loess people are easily frozen off. In order to prevent the ear from being fixed, Nu Wa pricked a small eye on the ear, tied it with a thin thread, and put the other end of the thread in the mouth of the loess man to bite it, thus making the ear better. To commemorate the achievements of Nu Wa, ordinary people wrapped jiaozi, molded it into adult ears with flour, wrapped it with stuffing (thread) and ate it with their mouths.