How did the custom of eating rice cakes come from?

The rice cake is a traditional folk food in China. During the Spring Festival, many areas have the custom of eating Yuanxiao. The rice cake is made of glutinous rice mixed with bean paste, red dates, green silk and so on. Besides steaming and frying, you can also fry and cook.

There are many kinds of rice cakes, such as white rice cakes and yellow rice cakes in the northern towns of China, rice cakes in the south of the Yangtze River and glutinous rice cakes in the northwest. The custom of China people eating rice cakes has a history of more than two thousand years, and its origin is related to a touching legend!

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Suzhou was the capital of the State of Wu. Fu Cha, the king of Wu, said to his general Wu Zixu, "Gather the people quickly, build a strong wall and surround Suzhou. In this way, it will be difficult for Yue to capture Suzhou. "

Wu Zixu is very talented. Under his leadership, a strong city wall was quickly repaired. The king of Wu was overjoyed and said, "From now on, I can rest assured and enjoy myself!" Sure enough, from then on, the prince of Wu spent all his time in the palace having fun, drinking and having fun, and forgot all the important things of governing the country.

Wu Zixu was very worried when he saw the prince so fatuous. He came to see the king of Wu several times and advised him, "A monarch should put national affairs first. If he indulges in drinking, the affairs of state will be ruined. Once the enemy invades, the country will be very dangerous. " The prince of Wu not only didn't listen to Wu Zixu's advice, but flew into a rage, saying that Wu Zixu was alarmist and that the country was going to perish, and ordered Wu Zixu to commit suicide to apologize.

Wu Zixu was filled with grief and indignation. When he died, he said to the people around him, "The King of Wu is fatuous, and the State of Wu will surely perish. Suzhou City is surrounded. If there is a famine, you can dig three feet under the city gate to find food. " Shortly after Wu Zixu's death, the State of Yue really attacked the State of Wu. Wu Jun was in chaos and retreated again and again. Finally, Suzhou City was surrounded by layers. After being besieged for several months, the soldiers and civilians in Suzhou began to starve to death because of lack of food. At this time, someone suddenly remembered Wu Zixu's last words, so they tore down the wall and dug the ground again, and found that many bricks used as the foundation of the wall were made of glutinous rice pulp. People use it to cook to satisfy their hunger, and life is very difficult.

In memory of Wu Zixu, people make brick cakes with glutinous rice every New Year and call them rice cakes.