1.

As we all know, in ancient China, there were many festivals in a year.

Some of these festivals are regional and some are national.

As these festivals became more routine and popular, some pastries attached to the legends about the festival's origins came into being.

For example, the Chinese Valentine's Day is said to be the day when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meet on the Magpie Bridge. The sweet fruits on the market on this day are the ancient people's representation of this myth in food.

The Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th is said to be the birthday of the moon, and some say it is the day when Chang'e flies to the moon.

The Mid-Autumn moon cakes that are launched today are the ancients' simulation of the shape of the moon and the artistic expression of moon myths in food.

The twenty-eighth day of the fourth lunar month is said to be the birthday of Sun Enmiao, the King of Medicine.

The "honey offering tip" offered in front of the Yaowang statue today is an imitation of the shape of Sun Simiao's "Qian Jin Bao Yao Stele" by the ancients.

Later, on the first day of the first lunar month, the honey offering tip was offered in front of the statues of gods, including Sakyamuni Buddha. So some people said that the honey offering tip was shaped like a "Buddha".

What should be pointed out here is that these pastries attached to the legend of the origin of the festival were originally "offerings" in front of the statues of gods for sharing by family members, and later developed into commercial pastries sold in the market.

Many of these pastries are produced in response to changes in solar terms.

For example, in the third month of the lunar calendar, there are rose cakes and wisteria cakes, and in summer, there are mung bean cakes, etc.

2.

Due to the etiquette needs of the ruling class, in ancient China, the ruling class had a very complicated set of etiquette, and cakes also became a part of etiquette as a courtesy.

Since the Liao and Jin Dynasties, as the ruling class established its capital in Beijing, a considerable number of various palace banquets and official banquets have been held in Beijing every year.

Pastries that were part of the banquet delicacies were produced in the imperial palaces and government kitchens in Beijing.

At the same time, in addition to giving banquets to civil and military ministers and foreign envoys, the emperor also had a ritual system of giving cakes to officials.

For example, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty would give "no falling pin" to all officials every April 8th, and "a box of sweets, seven kinds of sweets, and a sea of ??pine nuts" every winter solstice.

The above, on the one hand, added a new component of palace and government pastries to traditional Beijing pastries; on the other hand, with the spread of court and government pastries and the introduction of Beijing folk pastries into the palace, they greatly promoted the development of Beijing folk pastries.

In addition, under the constraints of feudal etiquette, cakes and pastries are necessary gifts for everything from red and white Mo Zun to teachers and students when they meet. For example, the Jurchens in Jinzhongdu "take coins, relatives and relatives go together, and go out with wine and delicacies"

, then enter large soft fat, small soft fat, honey cake, one plate per person, daily tea and food." 3.

The Spread of Capital Food When the rulers of Liao, Jin and Yuan established Beijing as their capital, they all brought craftsmanship from Bianliang in the Northern Song Dynasty, Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty and other places to Beijing.

When Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, he also moved craftsmen from Hebei, Shanxi and Jiangnan to Beijing.

As a result, these pastry chefs with various skills who moved to Beijing introduced pastries from Bianliang, Lin'an, Jiangnan and other areas to Beijing. These pastries later became an important part of Beijing's traditional pastries, such as the Chinese Valentine's Day pastry among seasonal pastries.

Qiaoguo, Double Ninth Festival Flower Cake, biluo among palace cakes, polygonum flower, peach cake, dried cake, chestnut cake among market cakes, etc. were all introduced to Beijing from Bianliang, Lin'an, Jiangnan and other places.

4.

The promotion of tea drinking trend After the Tang Dynasty, tea drinking became popular in the north and south.

According to historical records, in the Jin Kingdom, including Jin Zhongdu (today's Beijing), "tea is a drink, no different from rice and salt, and people compete to sip it up and down."

To drink tea, you must have cakes, and to taste tea, you must make tea. Therefore, "tea food" became a food that was served with tea and given to each other by the court and the public in the Jin Dynasty.

"Hailing Ji" records: "Jurchen customs attach great importance to tea and food. In the early days of the founding of Aguda, this kind of food was especially popular. There were dozens of kinds of cakes and baits in Zhongzhou, and they were stacked on large plates several feet high and served to guests.

It is also used to give banquets, and a kind of diamond bracelet is the largest. "During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was a place called "Chashi Hutong" in Beijing's Fang Alley, which is obviously a historical relic of the name of Chengfang Alley, the capital of the Jin Dynasty. Jurchens can also be seen here.

The popularity of tea and food in the Jin Dynasty is evident in all the cities.

The record of the Jurchen tea and food in the Jin Dynasty being "loaded on a large plate several feet high" can't help but remind people of the Manchu cake table in the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century AD. This kind of cake table is also called a "table" and is a unique banquet of the Manchu people.

The cakes are made of various Manchurian pastries stacked on top of each other. Their shape is "like a pagoda, but some are as high as twelve floors."

("Guangxu Shuntianfu Zhi") The Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty were the ancestors of the Manchus of the Qing Dynasty. It is not surprising that the tea dishes of the Jin Dynasty and the tables of the Qing Dynasty are so similar in shape and use.

5.

Integration of Ethnic Foods During the history of its formation, Beijing's traditional pastries also absorbed and integrated the wisdom of the people of all ethnic groups who lived in Beijing historically, and absorbed the essence of pastries of various ethnic groups.

As early as the Liao Dynasty in the 10th century AD, every fifth day of the fifth lunar month, "Ai Cake" made by Bohai diners was served here.