What is the origin of eating rice cakes?

Suzhou was the capital of Wu in the ancient Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. At that time, the princes dominated and the war lasted for years. Wu Zixu, a doctor of the State of Chu, went to Wu to avenge his father, intending to borrow soldiers to attack the State of Chu. The king of Wu did not agree, so Wu Zixu killed the king of Wu, led the troops to attack the capital of Chu, and set up a new king of Wu to reign, and Wu Zixu was also granted land. In order to prevent aggression, Wu Zixu led people to build the famous city of He Lv.

After the city was repaired, he said to his confidant, "After my death, if the country is in trouble and the people are hungry, you can dig a few feet under the city gate to find food." Soon, Wu Zixu was trapped and committed suicide. The State of Yue took the opportunity to attack the State of Wu, and the war continued, and there was famine everywhere. In times of crisis, someone remembered Wu Zixu's entrustment before his death, so they secretly tore down the city wall and dug up the ground.

It turned out that the city foundation was made of bricks made of glutinous rice, and people used it to make a kind of food, which overcame the difficulties. This kind of food was later called rice cake. Later, in the twelfth lunar month, people made rice cakes with glutinous rice as a sacrifice to Wu Zixu, and at the same time they also took the auspicious meaning of "reaching heaven step by step one year".

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The moral of rice cake:

The moral of rice cakes is high year after year, because the homonym "high year" expresses everyone's expectation and good wishes for the new year when it comes. The rice cake is an indispensable rice cake. Literally speaking, it is full of auspicious meanings. "nian" is homophonic with "sticky", so sticky characters can be understood as the meaning of Chinese New Year or reunion.

And "cake" is homophonic "high", which means rising step by step. In addition, rice cakes have a variety of flavors, and almost become a must-have food for every family.