According to records, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, millet was wrapped into horns by leaves of zinia latifolia, which was called "horny millet" at that time. Rice packed in bamboo tubes is sealed and baked, which is called "tube zongzi". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, millet was soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contains alkali, millet is wrapped in leaves and cooked, which becomes Guangdong sour rice dumplings.
In Jin Dynasty, Zongzi was officially designated as Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, in addition to glutinous rice, Alpinia oxyphylla was also added as the raw material for jiaozi, and the cooked jiaozi was called "Yizhi jiaozi". According to the Records of Yueyang Local Customs written by Zhou Ren, "It is customary to wrap millet with leaves, cook it and cook it thoroughly. From May 5 to the summer solstice, one is Zongzi and the other is Xiaomi. " During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, miscellaneous zongzi appeared. Rice is mixed with animal meat, chestnuts, red dates, red beans and so on. And there are more and more kinds. Zongzi is also used as a gift for communication.
In the Tang Dynasty, the rice used for zongzi was "white as jade", and its shape appeared conical and rhombic. There is a record of "Da Tang Zongzi" in Japanese literature. In the Song Dynasty, there were already "sugar dumplings", that is, fruits entered jiaozi. The poet Su Dongpo has a poem "See Yangmei in Zongzi". At this time, there were also advertisements for building pavilions and wooden chariots and horses with zongzi, which showed that eating zongzi was very fashionable in the Song Dynasty. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the wrapping material of zongzi changed from leaves to leaves. Later, zongzi wrapped in reed leaves appeared, and additional materials such as bean paste, pork, pine nuts, dates and walnuts appeared, and the varieties were more colorful.
Until today, at the beginning of May every year, people in China have to soak glutinous rice, wash zongzi leaves and wrap zongzi, and there are more kinds of colors of zongzi. Judging from the stuffing, there are many Beijing jujube jiaozi in the north; In the south, there are many kinds of fillings, such as bean paste, fresh meat, ham and egg yolk, among which Zhejiang Jiaxing Zongzi is the representative. The custom of eating zongzi has been popular in China for thousands of years and spread to South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.