Eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice

Eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice. Different regions have different customs during the Winter Solstice. In the northern region, there is the custom of slaughtering sheep, eating dumplings, and wontons during the winter solstice. In the southern region, it is customary to eat dumplings and wontons during the winter solstice. There is a habit of eating winter solstice rice balls and winter solstice noodles, while people in northern Jiangsu eat fried tofu with green onions during the winter solstice. It is said that eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice means remembering the kindness of "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing with his "Quhan Jiao Er Soup". There is still a folk saying in Nanyang that "if you don't bring dumpling bowls during the winter solstice, your ears will freeze off and no one will care".

Every year on the winter solstice of the lunar calendar, dumplings are an essential holiday meal for everyone, rich or poor. A proverb goes: "On October 1st, every household eats dumplings during the winter solstice." This custom was left in memory of the "medical sage" Zhang Zhongjing who gave up medicine during the winter solstice.

Zhang Zhongjing was a native of Gengdong, Nanyang. He wrote Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases, which was a collection of medical achievements and was 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." During the Eastern Han Dynasty, he served as the prefect of Changsha, visiting patients and administering medicine, and practicing medicine in the lobby. Later, he resolutely resigned and returned to his hometown to treat his neighbors. It was winter when he returned home. He saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River were sallow and thin, hungry and cold, and many of them had their ears rotten by the cold. He asked his disciples to set up a medical tent and a large pot in Dongguan, Nanyang, and make "Quhan Jiaoer Decoction" to treat chilblains on the winter solstice. He put mutton and some cold-repelling medicinal materials in a pot and boiled them. Then he took out the mutton and the medicinal materials and chopped them into pieces. He used bread to make ear-shaped "Jiao Er". After cooking, he distributed it to everyone who came to ask for medicine. Two "charming ears" and a big bowl of broth. People ate "Jiao Er" and drank "Qu Han Tang", their whole bodies became warm, their ears felt hot, and their frostbitten ears were cured. Later generations learned the "Jiao Er" look and wrapped it into food, also called "dumplings" or "flat food".