Eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival is the most important thing for people in Suzhou. Every time on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival, deep in the alleys of Suzhou, the red doors are ajar, and the sisters-in-law, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are sitting around in the hall, or just playing. On the stone roadside, there are several small rattan chairs gathered around, and the eyes are full of green bamboo leaves and the glistening of glutinous rice. In the evening, the aroma wafts, and there are good neighbors bringing bowls to each other, exchanging each other's craftsmanship, salty taste, and selling No matter what, this is a rare ancient custom in modern people's lives, and it is a delicacy that Suzhou people talk about. Bao Tianxiao, a Suzhou writer during the Republic of China, recalled in his later book "A Hundred Years of Changes in Clothing, Food, Housing and Transportation":
When it comes to the Dragon Boat Festival, it is the world of zongzi. The taste of rice dumplings ranges from sweet to salty to plain. The shapes are round, square, long, and pointed. There is a kind of white water rice dumplings. Fan Yanqiao once told me in a book: It is said that the rice dumplings are made of newly made rose sauce and dipped in white water. They are excellent in color, aroma and taste. I responded with a poem: "It's funny for poets and painters, even if they are shy, they need pens." Flowers. The rice dumplings dipped in rose sauce are white, and the snowy mountains are covered with a touch of clouds."
Like many places, every household in Suzhou makes rice dumplings by themselves, wrapping glutinous rice and various kinds of rice dumplings with green bamboo leaves or green reed leaves. The fillings are shaped into a triangular cone, which is a small foot rice dumpling, or wrapped into a tube shape. It's called pillow rice dumplings. Put it in a pot and bring it to a boil over high heat, then simmer slowly. It'll be ready in a few hours. The popular method of making rice dumplings in Suzhou is completely based on the ancient method. The glutinous rice is soaked in water the day before making the rice dumplings. The fillings include pork, ham, red beans, etc. There are many names, roughly divided into three types: salty, sweet and white, some are meat and some are vegetarian. , ordinary people will make white water rice dumplings, red bean rice dumplings, date rice dumplings, and gray soup rice dumplings. The exquisite ones are lard rice dumplings with sand, using the best red adzuki beans, peeling them after cooking, filtering the sand, and then adding an appropriate amount of sugar and oil to cook them. It is stuffed, and there is also a piece of fat in the stuffing. After cooking, the fat is the most authentic. It is sweet and delicious, and looks like jade. It is a typical Suzhou flavor. The white water rice dumplings are delicious. They can be simply dipped in white sugar and osmanthus sauce, or eaten as they are. In short, they are the most authentic kind according to people's taste. Li Shizhen reminded us that people use glutinous rice to make zongzi, which was not the case before. It is said that farmers in the north still retain the ancient custom of using millet to make Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings.
The earliest record of using glutinous rice to make rice dumplings was in the Tang Dynasty. The rice used for rice dumplings was "as white as jade" and the shapes of the rice dumplings were cone-shaped and rhombus-shaped. Wei Juyuan of the Tang Dynasty wrote "Recipes" and mentioned that Chang'an had "Honey Cool Zongzi", which evolved from the "Feifei-Hanging Fragrance Zongzi" served at the "Shaowei Banquet" in the Tang Dynasty. The wonderful thing about this rice dumpling is that it only uses glutinous rice without fillings. After it is cooked, it is left to cool. When eating, it is cut into thin slices with silk thread and poured with honey and cinnamon sauce. When eating, just drizzle honey on the cold rice dumplings. It is cool, sweet and fragrant. It secretes into the lungs. Such rice dumplings reveal the atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
In March of the first year of Baoli (AD 825), Bai Juyi served as the governor of Suzhou. During the Dragon Boat Festival in Suzhou, the sweetness of Suzhou rice dumplings must have deeply impressed this romantic governor. In "He Meng De Summer Solstice" In the poem "Recalling the Guests of Chenglu in Suzhou", he recalled this flavor of Suzhou with emotion:
"Recalling my days in Suzhou, I was often familiar with the summer solstice feast. The fragrant rice dumplings are tender with bamboo, and the goose is crispy and fresh. . ”
In the Tang Dynasty, rice dumplings had gradually become common people’s daily food, and there were many varieties. A poem by Yao He of the Tang Dynasty goes: "Zhu is noisy with the sound of fishing songs, and the wind blows the fragrance of rice dumplings." "The Legacy of Kaiyuan Tianbao" records: "Every Dragon Boat Festival in the palace, flour balls of rice dumplings are made and stored in gold plates, and bows are made from small horns. It's so cute and cute. If you shoot the rice balls on the plate with an arrow, the person who hits the ball will eat it. The rice balls on the cover are slippery and difficult to shoot. "The "Dragon Boat Festival" written in the Song Dynasty records: "The Dragon Boat Festival is due to the ancients." The rice is wrapped with wild rice leaves, called millet, and is commonly used to make rice dumplings. In recent years, pine, chestnut, walnut, ginger, cinnamon, and musk are often added to the rice dumplings. When cooked in ashes, the color is like gold. "The difference between this method and today's is actually very small. Su Dongpo chanted in "Dragon Boat Festival Poems": "Not only do I see reeds and oranges in the plate, but also bayberry in the rice dumplings." Lu You has a good line about "The green rice dumplings are unraveled in the plate, and I mourn for the hairpin and a branch of moxa", Zongzi. The noteworthy custom of eating rice dumplings in Suzhou is "Jian Zong" - Fan Chengda's "Wujun Zhi":
On Chongwu, rice dumplings with horns, Zhu Suo, Aihu, and painted fans are used as payment. At the summer solstice, horned millet is made again to offer sacrifices. Zongzi grass is tied to the hands and feet to celebrate it, which is called Jianzong.
I don’t know if this custom has anything to do with the later "Jianren". In the old days, women in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas had to wear an ornament made of gold and silver wire or copper wire and gold foil in the shape of a little man riding a horse. Tiger, there are also bells, bells, tassels, garlic, rice dumplings, etc. added. It is inserted into women's hair buns and is also used for giving gifts. "Qing Jia Lu", which recorded the customs of Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty, says: "(On May 5th) the people in the city used gold and silver wires to make complex tassels, bells, bells and other shapes, and rode people on tigers. They were very fine and decorated with small hairpins. , or there are copper wires and gold foils for women to wear on their temples, and they offer gifts to each other, which is called Jianren.
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"Wu Jun Sui Hua Ji Li" has the article "Chaifu Jianren":