Jiaozi is a folk food with a long history and is deeply loved by people. There is a folk saying "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 time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, wonton had been "shaped like a crescent moon, and it was delicious all over the world". Presumably, when jiaozi cooked it, he didn't take it out and eat it alone, but put it in a bowl with the soup, so people called jiaozi "wonton" at that time. This way of eating is still popular in some areas of our country. For example, when people from Henan and Shaanxi eat jiaozi, they should put some small ingredients such as coriander, chopped green onion, shrimp skin and leek in the soup. By about the Tang Dynasty, jiaozi had become exactly the same as jiaozi now, so it was fished out and put on a plate to eat by itself. 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. Jiaozi was called a "flat food" in the Yuan Dynasty. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Bang's Miscellaneous Notes on Ten Thousand Parts recorded: "New Year's Day, New Year's Day ...... as a patch food". Liu Ruoyu's "Proceedings" records: "Eat fruit snacks on New Year's Day and eat a plaque immediately." The "plaque" of the "plaque food" in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties is now commonly used as "ping". A kind of "flat food" may come from Mongolian. Some new names about jiaozi appeared in Qing Dynasty, such as "jiaozi", "Water Snack" and "Boiled Bean". The increase of Jiaozi's names shows that its geographical spread is expanding.
Related legends: First, to commemorate the creation of Pangu and end the mixed state, and second, to take it as a homonym with "Hundun", meaning "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 soil caused people, the ears of loess people were easily frozen off because of the cold weather. In order to prevent the ear from being fixed, Nuwa put 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, so that the ear would be fine. In order 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 and place their hopes for the new year.
Jiaozi cuisine not only brings joy to people, but also becomes an important part of China's food culture.