Jiaozi is a folk food with a long history and is deeply loved by people. There is a saying among the people that "it's delicious but not as good as jiaozi". During the Spring Festival, jiaozi has become an indispensable delicacy.
According to "Guangya" written by zhang yi, wei ren of the Three Kingdoms, there was a crescent-shaped food called "Wonton" at that time, which was basically similar to the shape of jiaozi now. By the Northern and Southern Dynasties, wonton had been "shaped like a crescent moon, and it was delicious all over the world". Presumably, jiaozi didn't take it out and eat it alone when cooking, but put it in a bowl with the soup, so people called jiaozi "wonton" at that time. This way of eating is still very popular in some areas of our country. For example, when people from Henan and Shaanxi eat jiaozi, they should put some small ingredients in the soup, such as coriander, chopped green onion, shrimp skin and leek.
Around the Tang Dynasty, jiaozi had become exactly the same as jiaozi now, and was fished out and put on a plate to eat alone.
Jiaozi was called "Joule" in Song Dynasty, which is the etymology of the word "Jiaozi" in later generations. This kind of writing can still be seen in the following Yuan, Ming, Qing and Republic of China.
The Yuan Dynasty called jiaozi a "flat food". During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Bang's Miscellaneous Notes recorded: "New Year's Day, New Year's greetings ..... as plaque food". Liu Ruoyu's "Proceedings" says: "Eat fruit snacks on the first day of the New Year, and eat the food on the plaque immediately." The "plaque" of "plaque food" in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties is now commonly used as "flat". "Flat food" may come from Mongolian.
During the Qing Dynasty, some new appellations about jiaozi appeared, such as "jiaozi", "water snack" and "boiled beans". The increase of jiaozi's name indicates that its geographical spread is expanding.
The folk custom of eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival has been quite popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Generally, jiaozi should wrap it up before New Year's Eve 12, and eat it at midnight. At this time, it is the beginning of the first day of the first lunar month. Eating jiaozi means "making friends when you are young", and "Zi" is homophonic with "jiaozi", which means "reunion" and "good luck".
There are many legends about eating jiaozi during the Spring Festival. One is to commemorate Pangu's creation and end the mixed state. The other is to use it as a homonym of "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 adult ears with flour, wrapped them with stuffing (thread) and ate them with their mouths.
Jiaozi has become an indispensable program food for the Spring Festival. The reasons are as follows: First, jiaozi is shaped like an ingot. During the Spring Festival, people eat jiaozi, which sounds like "making money into treasure". Secondly, jiaozi has stuffing, which is convenient for people to put all kinds of auspicious things into stuffing to pin people's hopes for the new year.
When wrapping jiaozi, people often wrap Jin Ruyi, sugar, peanuts, dates and chestnuts into stuffing. People who eat the best and sugar will have a sweeter life in the coming year, people who eat peanuts will live a long and healthy life, and people who eat dates and chestnuts will have a baby early.
In some areas, when people eat jiaozi, they must match some non-staple foods to show their good luck. If you eat tofu, it symbolizes the happiness of the whole family; Eating persimmons symbolizes all the best; Eat three kinds of fresh vegetables. It symbolizes that Sanyang opens Thailand. People in Taiwan Province Province eat fish balls, meatballs and seaweed, symbolizing reunion and getting rich.
There are various fillings and making methods in jiaozi. Even the same kind of jiaozi has different ways of eating: Daur people in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang want to cook jiaozi in vermicelli broth. Then even the soup with jiaozi to eat; In some areas of Henan, jiaozi cooks noodles together, which is called "gold thread penetrates gold ingot".
Jiaozi's delicacies not only bring joy to people, but also become an important part of China's food culture.