What is the origin story of rice cake?

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the king of Wu favored Xi Shi, a beautiful woman from Yue, and listened to the slanderous rumors that she was extravagant. He ordered Wu Zixu to build the "Great City of Helu" for his own enjoyment. This means that he built a city named after King Helu of Wu, and after it was completed, he invited his ministers to a banquet to celebrate his success.

At the banquet, everyone was mingling and laughing, and all was peaceful. Only Wu Zixu was worried, he knew that the king of Wu had already entered the trap of Goujuan and Fan Li.

After returning home, Wu Zixu called his close friends and instructed them that after my death, if the country was in trouble and the people were starving, they could dig three feet into the ground under Xiangmen City to get food. At first, he thought that Wu Zixu was confused and his mind was not working well, and that he would not be able to dig for food under the city wall.

Soon Wu Zixu was framed and killed, and the state of Wu was swallowed up by 3,000 Yuejia. The state of Wu was in great turmoil, and the people's corpses were strewn everywhere, almost all of them starving to death. It was then that Wu Zixu's cronies remembered their boss's words and rushed to dig up the ground at Xiangmen with the people.

Accidentally, they found that the city bricks of Xiangmen were not made of clay, but made of glutinous rice ground into powder. But never mind that, the hungry people finally survived the temporary crisis by relying on this wall. Later, in order to commemorate Wu Zixu's achievements and benevolence, the custom of eating rice cakes in every household came into being on the day of the Spring Festival.

Expanded information:

Not only does the rice cake represent people's blessings for the New Year, but because of the vastness of China's territory and its different customs, people in different regions have also used As a result, people in different regions have adopted the custom of using different foods to express their hopes for the future as they celebrate the old and welcome the new. In the south, most people eat rice cakes, while in the north, most people eat "steamed" foods, such as dumplings, buns and steamed buns.

But in the north, it's not the food you eat that matters, it's the steaming, which signifies prosperity, and represents the simple desire of people to get better and better every day.