Where is the speciality of Wu-mi rice

WuMiRi is a specialty of Jiangsu Province.

WuMiRi is a kind of rice that is relatively dark in color, and it is not much different from the rice we usually eat, except that the planting area and soil of WuMiRi is different from that of the rice we usually eat.

Wu rice has appeared as early as in the Tang Dynasty period, and is now mainly in Yixing, Jintan, Liyang area, was originally a traditional Chinese folk festival food, in honor of Shakyamuni's disciple, Meilian.

On the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar every year, it is the Wu Rice Festival in Liyang area. In the folklore, it is said that Meilian dyed the rice with the juice of aconite leaves pounded into the leaves and then boiled it into Wu Rice to send it to his mother so that she could eat the rice. Because hungry ghosts were afraid to eat the darker colored rice, his mother was able to have a full stomach.

Related Legends

The consumption of umi rice is usually eaten around the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, which is the day of the first summer. There is also a folklore associated with this particular festival.

Legend has it that during the Warring States period, Sun Bin, a descendant of Sun Wu, the Sage of War, went into the mountains with Pang Juan, a great general of the state of Wei, to learn the art of war from Gigu Zi. Ghost Valley taught the essence of the art of war to Sun Bin, who was modest and studious. Pang Juan was jealous of his talent and designed to trick Sun Bin, cut off his kneecaps and locked him up in a stable to force him to hand over his book of war by starvation.

The kind jailer sympathized with Sun Bin's misfortune. He hid it from Pang Juan's men and used the leaves of the Wuyi tree to mash and soak the juice to mix with glutinous rice, boiled it and pinched it into a small ball and secretly gave it to Sun Bin to eat. Pang Juan never found out the secret because the shape and color was similar to horse dung. Later Sun Bin was rescued and took his revenge.