How to spread traditional culture through the custom of eating zongzi

Zongzi is a food to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, and it is endowed with the significance of commemorating Qu Yuan, a doctor of Chu State. According to "On the Continuation of Qi and Harmony", Qu Yuan threw himself into the river on the fifth day of May, and the Chu people mourned. At this point, rice is stored in a bamboo tube, sacrificed with water, stuffed with neem leaves, wrapped in colorful silks, and not a dragon thief, which is the origin of zongzi. However, Huang, a neighbor, objected to this statement in the History of Dragon Boat Festival Etiquette and Customs, arguing that Zongzi's memorial to Qu Yuan was just "talking about money after drinking tea and wine, and the textual research was all wet." Yin Dengguo, a scholar from Taiwan Province, also confirmed that Zongzi is the first seasonal food from summer to the sun in his article "Customs and Customs from Summer to the Sun". Scholars of different schools hold their own words and have their own evidence. Regardless of its origin, Zongzi has developed into a traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival and even in summer.

Zongzi is usually wrapped in bamboo leaves or reed leaves, and the ancients also wrapped it in mugwort leaves, water bamboo leaves and water bamboo leaves. It's called mugwort wrapped with fragrant rice dumplings. The leaves of zongzi should be soaked in water first, and then washed. Glutinous rice should also be soaked in cold water in advance, and then drained for use. The ancients were very particular about making zongzi. Add red dates, chestnuts, walnuts, dried persimmons, ginkgo, red beans, ginger and cinnamon to glutinous rice. If you want to pack alkaline jiaozi, you can sprinkle a little lime water on the rice and stir it to make the rice yellow; Or put a little wood ash or lime in the water for cooking zongzi, and the boiled alkaline zongzi will be especially fragrant and delicious.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Zongzi was once loved by the royal family. When Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty was in power, a number of zongzi and zongzi were carefully made in Duanyang Palace every year. The rice balls are put in a golden plate, and then the ladies-in-waiting shoot the rice balls in the plate with small golden bows and arrows, and the shooters enjoy zongzi. But the dough is greasy and it is not easy to shoot. In order to get the reward of eating zongzi, ladies-in-waiting must concentrate on drawing bows and arrows carefully. Tang was happy at one side, and sang a poem "The four seasons are beautiful, and the nine sons are striving for novelty". This court game lasted until the Song Dynasty.

The ancients also added drugs to zongzi to treat diseases. According to Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica, the combination of antimalarial drugs and zongzi has a good effect on malaria. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Lu Xun wrapped Chinese medicine Yizhi and glutinous rice together to make "Yizhi Zongzi", which was dedicated to Emperor Wu of Song Wudi to treat his mental decline and mental retardation. Zongzi also inspired the creation of ancient poets. Yuan Zhen has "picking Bijun zongzi, white jade stalks"; Wen Tingyun has "Pan Dou Jiu Zizong, Ou Wuqin Jiang Yun"; Yao He's "All the noisy fishing songs ring and the wind blows the horn"; Lu You's "green glutinous rice dumplings with vegetables * * * will be even worse." These are all songs about zongzi. Zongzi later became a gift for relatives and friends during the Dragon Boat Festival. In the old society, in addition to zongzi, some extended families in Zhumen also received seasonal items such as mulberry, cherry, water chestnut, apricot, poisonous cake and rose cake. And small families can barely pack a few clean water jiaozi, which is both economical and edible. The Dragon Boat Festival zongzi in Beijing are all wrapped in reed leaves and tied with irises. Inter-city sellers are mainly Jiangmi Jujube, while suburban farmers pull carts into the city, and most sellers are Huangmi Jujube Zongzi. Southerners pay more attention to eating zongzi, which has formed a series in modern times, mainly divided into Su style and Guang style. There are white rice dumplings, red bean rice dumplings, red bean paste rice dumplings, fresh meat rice dumplings, ham rice dumplings and so on. They have pure taste and unique flavor. Cantonese style mainly includes jiaozi with red bean paste, barbecued pork buns and heavy assorted steamed dumplings, which are unique. Later, Nanwei food stores such as Gui Xiang Village and Daoxiang Village in Beijing specially supplied Nanwei Zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival, allowing diners in the north and south to choose and buy at will. Beijingers can taste a rare thing and appreciate the southern flavor; Old customers in the south can eat the "specialties" of their hometown, which is even more enjoyable!

The custom of eating zongzi is popular not only in China, but also in Japan, Korea and some countries in Southeast Asia. I'm afraid the ancients who invented Zongzi never imagined that Zongzi could travel across the ocean and spread China's diet.