The original name 'Jiao Er' was invented by Zhang Zhongjing.

The original name of dumplings, 'Jiao Er', is said to have been first invented by Zhang Zhongjing, the medical sage of China. The story of how he made a soup that dispelled the cold has been passed down in folklore to this day.

The story goes that when Zhang Zhongjing was the governor of Changsha, he used to treat the people. One year, when the local plague was prevalent, he set up a cauldron at the entrance of the government office and saved people's lives by giving them medicine, which was y loved by the people of Changsha. After Zhang Zhongjing returned home from Changsha in time for the winter solstice, he walked to the bank of Baihe River in his hometown and saw that many poor people were suffering from hunger and cold, and their ears were frozen. It turned out that typhoid fever was prevalent at that time, and many people died of the disease. He felt very hard in his heart and was determined to save them. When Zhang Zhongjing returned home, there were so many people seeking medical treatment that he was very busy, but he always remembered those poor people with frozen ears in his heart. He followed the example of Changsha, and asked his disciples to set up a medical hut and a cauldron in a vacant lot in Dongguan, Nanyang, and opened the hut on the winter solstice, giving medicine to the poor to cure their wounds.

Zhang Zhongjing's medicine is called "Cold-removing Jiao Er Tang", which summarizes more than 300 years of clinical practice in the Han Dynasty, and its practice is to use mutton, chili peppers and some cold-removing herbs boiled in a pot to boil, and then after cooking, these things are fished out and chopped up, and wrapped in dough to form an ear-shaped "Jiao Er", and cooked in a pot. After boiling, these things were fished out and chopped up, wrapped in dough and made into ear-shaped "Jiao Er", which was then boiled in a pot and distributed to patients begging for medicine. Each person was given two ears and a bowl of soup. People ate the soup to get rid of cold body heat, blood flow, two ears warm. The people ate it from the winter solstice to New Year's Eve, warding off typhoid and curing their frozen ears.

Zhang Zhongjing sheds medicine until the 30th day of the New Year. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, people celebrated the New Year and the recovery of the rotten ear, so they made New Year's food after the appearance of the ear and ate it on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. People called this food "dumpling ear", "dumpling" or "flat food" and ate it on the winter solstice and the first day of the new year to commemorate the day when Zhang Zhongjing opened the shed and cured the patients.

Zhang Zhongjing was born nearly 1,800 years ago, but the story of how he made the "Cold-removing Jiao Er Soup" has been widely circulated among the people. Every winter solstice and the first day of the Lunar New Year, people eat dumplings, still remembering the kindness of Zhang Zhongjing. Today, we do not need to use the delicate ear to cure frozen ears, but dumplings have become the most common and favorite food.