In ancient times, it was customary to eat "barley porridge" on Qingming Day.

According to the "Jingchu Age Chronicles", the cold food "no fire for three days, eat barley porridge".

The method of making this porridge is to first grind the barley into wheat slurry, cook it, then mix in the mashed almonds, cool it and cut it into pieces, and pour the starch syrup on top when eating.

This is the earliest recorded Qingming Festival food.

Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty also introduced a kind of cold food during Qingming Festival in "Essentials of Qi Min", called "Hanju", which is actually a kind of sweet dough cake.

"Mix water with honey to soak the noodles. If there is no honey, use dates to boil the juice. You can also get beef and sheep fat. You can also use cow and goat milk to make the cakes crispy and beautiful." This is also a kind of cold food, which tastes sweet and crispy.

Lu Hui of the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded the customs of Bingzhou in "Ye Zhong Ji" and said: One hundred and fifteen days after the winter solstice is the day when fire is introduced, and cold food is cooked on three days to make dry porridge, which is regarded as cold food in China.

The "Jingchu Years' Notes" written by Zongmao of the Liang Dynasty in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (a collection of notes that records the seasonal scenery and scenery of the ancient Chu land) also records: Sun Chu's sacrifice introduction said: "One plate of glutinous rice, two bowls of cheese. Today's cold foods include apricot cheese and wheat porridge. According to the "Qi Min Yao Shu" written by Jia Sixie, an agricultural scientist in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, boiled cheese is called wheat porridge. "Three Kingdoms Classics" records that Li Yue, a native of Yecheng, persuaded his customers to harvest barley at his own expense and transport it to Jinyang in order to sell it at a high price during the Cold Food Festival. Due to the long journey, it was already the Qingming Festival when the car arrived in Jinyang. According to Cao Cao's "Ming Punishment Order", the people in Jinyang were deprived of fire and cold food for a long time after the winter solstice. Li Yue's barley truck did not arrive until the Qingming Festival, which naturally delayed the opportunity. It also shows that Jinyang people used barley to cook and eat wheat porridge during the Cold Food Festival. By the Five Dynasties, in addition to the general cold food porridge and cakes, they also added the custom of making "artistic" eggs during the Qingming Festival. There are two types, one is "painted eggs", which is to dye the eggshells with various colors, but the colors are different. The other is "carved eggs", which is to carve paintings on the eggshells. With superb technology, this kind of egg is only for viewing. Chen Jiru's "Pearl Ship" in the Ming Dynasty also recorded that in the Southern Dynasties: Emperor Wu of Liang gave wheat porridge as a cold food. Porridge is also called rice, millet or corn. Pasty food. According to the book "Baojian" written by Luo Tianyi, a physician in the Yuan Dynasty: porridge made from japonica rice and corn has a light smell, with yin in it, so it is light and comfortable and can facilitate urination. In the land of longevity, many elderly people have cured their stomachache, insomnia and constipation by drinking porridge morning and night. This is why eating porridge saves time and tastes delicious. Taking a nap after eating porridge is wonderful. People say that porridge has great benefits. There are many types of cold food porridge. Luoyang people also have the custom of eating peach blossom porridge and plum blossom porridge. The specific method is to collect fallen flower petals and wash them. Boil the porridge with water, wait until the porridge is cooked, put the petals into the pot, and eat immediately. In addition, there is also a kind of Dongling porridge, which is a high-end food during the Cold Food Festival and is difficult for ordinary people to enjoy during the festival. Specializing in this famous food, the special food during the Cold Food Festival must be Dongling porridge. At that time, there were food officials in charge of the meal and wine ceremony. The law stipulated that on New Year's Day, Cold Food and Winter Solstice, food must be specially provided to Liupin. The above officials. It is a custom to eat rice dumplings during the Qingming Festival in the north and south of my country. In ancient times, rice dumplings were called Hanju. They are fried noodles made of glutinous rice flour and twisted into rings. They are crispy and delicious. , has an excellent taste. Jia Sixie, a famous agriculturist in the Northern Wei Dynasty, recorded in detail the making methods of cold utensils in the Three Kingdoms, Jin Dynasty, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Names such as "Tou". It is made by kneading flour with water, rolling it into thin strips, twisting it into a ring shape, and frying it. Because of its crispy and sweet taste, it has gradually become a daily snack for our people. In Anhui, during festivals, it is called "Shanzi" "Sacrifice ancestors and give gifts to each other. The Hui and Dongxiang people also make steamed buns, and the ingredients and methods are different from those of the Han people. Later, the steamed buns that were popular in Han areas had differences between the north and the south: the steamed buns in the north were larger and mainly made of wheat noodles. Ingredients; Southern dumplings are delicate and mostly use rice noodles as the main ingredient.

In ethnic minority areas, there are many varieties of tanzi with different flavors, especially those of the Uygur, Dongxiang, Naxi and Ningxia Hui ethnic groups are the most famous.

For cold utensils, the usual explanation is that the ancients had cold food and did not use fireworks in the morning and evening, so they could only eat cold food. Eating cold food is not good for the human stomach, and it is not as easy to store as fried food and does not hurt the stomach. Therefore,

People fried some ring-shaped pasta in advance as a quick snack during the cold food period.

Since it is a tool for the Cold Food Festival, it is called "cold tool".

This type of explanation may not be reliable, but there is no more reliable explanation yet.

Jia Sixie talked about cold utensils in "Qi Min Yao Shu", indicating that cold utensils were already a popular food in the Jin Dynasty.

The more famous folk rice dumplings in my country include: Hengshui rice dumplings, Jining rice dumplings, Xuzhou rice dumplings, Huaian tea rice dumplings, Huixiang rice dumplings, and linen rice dumplings.

People in the northwest region have the habit of eating rice dumplings, which are called Huixiang rice dumplings.