The origin of zongzi is recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica that "the ancients wrapped millet with leaves and cooked it into sharp corners, such as palm leaves, so it was called zongzi". The earliest record of zongzi was "Scenery" written by Zhou Department of Xinping Prefecture about 0/600 years ago in the Western Jin Dynasty: "Midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, cooking millet." 200 years later, Wu Yun, a writer in the Southern Dynasties, said in the Story of the Continuation of Qi: "Qu Yuan died in Polo on May 5, and the Chu people mourned it, so they stored rice in bamboo tubes and sacrificed it with water." So the rumor passed down and became a custom. It can be seen that people have deep feelings for loyal people Zongzi didn't come to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan. There are many opinions about its origin. The most convincing is the theory of "package cooking", that is, when cooked food with fire was invented 500,000 years ago, in order to be palatable, the food was wrapped with leaves and cooked in the fire, and then peeled and eaten. Although it's not called Zongzi, it's already formed. After 400,000 years of spring and autumn, we entered the era of stone cooking. Our ancestors were able to dig holes in the ground, put hides in the holes and fill them with water. We put hot stones in it to make the water boil, and simmer the raw materials wrapped in plant leaves until they are mature, more like zongzi now. There are many brands of zongzi in the market, but they are basically the same. Take Li Xiang Zongzi of Lekoufu in Chuanxiangge as an example. Zongzi can be divided into meat zongzi, vegetarian zongzi, salty zongzi and sweet zongzi.

1, Beiping Zongzi: Most of them are sweet Zongzi, mainly divided into two types. One is white zongzi wrapped in glutinous rice, which needs to be dipped in white sugar and a little rose juice, and it tastes very pleasant. The other is to wrap two or three red dates with glutinous rice, which is called Xiaozaoer Zongzi. It needs to be refrigerated before eating, and there will be a cold pleasure when eating.

2. Guangdong Zongzi: It is the most abundant material in all Zongzi, with huge volume and the longest time-consuming practice. Salted dumplings contain ham, bacon, egg yolk, roast chicken, barbecued pork, roast duck, chestnuts, mushrooms and shrimp. Sweet fillings include lotus seed paste, mung bean paste, red bean paste, chestnut paste, jujube paste, walnut and so on.

3. Zongzi in Taiwan Province Province: Zongzi in Taiwan Province Province can be divided into north and south. Northern Zongzi is made by frying glutinous rice with red onion, soy sauce, salt and pepper until it is 80% mature, then wrapping it with fried stuffing such as pork, dried bean curd, bamboo shoots, marinated eggs, mushrooms, dried shrimps and dried radish, and steaming it in a steamer, which is chewy and not too sticky. Zongzi in the south is slightly fried with glutinous rice and peanuts, without sauce color. There are pork, red onions, chestnuts, dried bean curd and taro in jiaozi. Then put the wrapped jiaozi in water and cook it until the glutinous rice is cooked, and dip it in seasoning when eating. Zongzi in the south is sticky and not chewy.

4. Huzhou Zongzi: It is a taste of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which can be eaten in Jiangsu and Zhejiang dim sum shops, and it is also divided into sweet and salty. The sweet one is oily red bean paste, and the salty one is pork marinated in soy sauce, and each zongzi only contains a piece of fat meat and a piece of lean meat, with no other materials. Zongzi is also wrapped in a special way, which is shovel-headed, with one end protruding and one end flat.

5. Jiaxing Zongzi: Famous. Similar to Huzhou Zongzi, it also belongs to Jiangsu and Zhejiang tastes. [Edit this paragraph] Introduction to Zongzi Zongzi (Pinyin: zòng zǐ) (English name: chongzi) is a kind of festival food of the Dragon Boat Festival, which was called "Zongzi" in ancient times. Legend has it that it was to sacrifice Qu Yuan who threw himself into the river, and on that day, zongzi were given to each other as a souvenir. Zongzi is still the traditional food with the deepest cultural accumulation in the history of China.

Eat zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival.

Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival is another traditional custom of China people. Zongzi, also known as "millet" and "Zongzi". It has a long history and various patterns.

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". Rice packed in bamboo tubes is sealed and baked, which is called "tube zongzi". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, millet soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contains alkali, the millet is wrapped in leaves into a quadrilateral, and when cooked, it 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, jiaozi also added Alpinia oxyphylla, and the boiled jiaozi was called "Yizhi jiaozi". According to the "Yueyang Local Records" written by Zhou people, "It is customary to wrap the millet with leaves, cook it and cook it thoroughly. From May 5 to the solstice in summer, there is a jiaozi and a millet. " 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 varieties. 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 was already a "candied jiaozi", 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, indicating 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.

To this day, at the beginning of May every year, people in China have to soak glutinous rice, wash zongzi leaves and wrap zongzi, with more varieties of colors. From the perspective of stuffing, there are many dates in the north, such as jiaozi; There are many kinds of fillings in the south, such as red 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. [Edit this paragraph] Records of Zongzi in Historical Records were first found in Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi in the Han Dynasty. The word "Zongzi" is written as "Yi", and there is "Shuo Wen Jie Zi Xin Fu"? 6? "1 rice part" means "reed leaves cover rice." In terms of rice, it is squeaky. "Shuo Wen"? 6? 1 Ba ":"Hey, astringent. "This means that birds will gather their legs and claws together when flying." 6? 1 send rhyme: "Hey, the angle is also. Or jiaozi. "

Zongzi, also known as "crossing toes", was first recorded in the local custom of the Western Jin Dynasty: "On the fifth day of midsummer, Fang Bo is extremely harmonious. Enjoy the corn tortoise scale in Shunde. Note: the end is also the beginning, which means the fifth day of May. Sizhong is Fang Bo. The custom of May 5th is very heavy, just like the solstice in summer. ● (Same as "duck"), Chunfu chicken can be eaten during the summer solstice. First, the first two festivals are one day, then glutinous rice is wrapped with leaves, mixed with millet and cooked with pure ash juice. The second festival is still good. ..... wrapped in glutinous rice, a' glutinous rice' and a' corn millet' cover up the image that Yin and Yang are still wrapped around the package. " It is clearly recorded in Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming Dynasty that millet is wrapped in leaves and cooked into food in the shape of sharp horns or palm leaves, so it is called "horn millet" or "zongzi". After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, rice dumplings were mostly made of glutinous rice. At this time, it is called zongzi, not millet. [Edit this paragraph] Folklore Since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people began to eat zongzi, which originated from the saying that people paid homage to Qu Yuan.

Wu Jun of the Southern Dynasty (467-520) wrote in Continued Harmony: "Qu Yuan died in Miluo on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, and the Chu people mourned it. Every day, rice is stored in bamboo tubes and sacrificed in water. During the military construction of Han Dynasty, Changsha returned to Europe. During the day, I suddenly saw a man who called himself Dr. San Lv. He said, "You should see this sacrifice. Very kind. But it is often stolen by the bitter dragon. If there is any benefit today, you can put neem leaves on it and tie it with colored silk. These two things are also afraid of dragons. "Back to him. The world uses five-color silk and neem leaves to make zongzi, which is the legacy of Miluo. "

There is also a saying that people are afraid that Qu Yuan's body will be eaten by fish in the river, so they wrap up Zongzi and throw it into the river to feed the fish.

The view that Zongzi is associated with Qu Yuan is widely circulated because of its romanticism. Zongzi often appears in literati's poems.

Yuan Zhen wrote in "Ten Summer Poems": "The colorful clouds are continuous, and the fragrant white jade beads."

In Song Dynasty, Yang Wuxia wrote in Qi Tianle Dragon Boat Festival: "Spare a few Huang Meiyu. It is noon again. Corn is covered with gold, calamus is full of jade, and the scenery is still beautiful. Shirt Ai Hu. Zhu Fu has more curly hair and red thunder on his arm. Float powder and fragrant cotton, call the fan noon window. "

This is the most popular legend, and there are other stories in a few areas. As we all know, the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the national hero Qu Yuan. In order to prevent fish and shrimp from hurting his health, people put rice in bamboo tubes and put it into the river one by one. Later, in order to show respect and memory for Qu Yuan, people put rice in bamboo tubes on this day and put it into memorial ceremonies. This is the origin of China's earliest zongzi, the so-called bamboo tube rice.

Why did you wrap zongzi with wormwood leaves or reed leaves and lotus leaves later?

There is such a record in the Elementary Book: During the Jianwu period of the Han Dynasty, Changsha people dreamed of a man who called himself Dr. San Lv (the official name of Qu Yuan) at night and said to him, "Everything you sacrificed was stolen by the dragon in the river, so you can wrap it with mugwort leaves and tie it with colorful silk thread in the future. Dragons are most afraid of these two things. " So, people made "corn millet" with "leaves wrapped in millet". From generation to generation, it has gradually developed into the Dragon Boat Festival food in China.