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Eating zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the festival customs. Zong, or “zongzi”, commonly known as “Zongzi”, is one of the “zongzi”. “籺” is a tribute used to worship gods and ancestors during festivals. There are many varieties of “籺”, and different festivals will make different dishes. Making dishes to worship gods and ancestors is an ancient custom. The main ingredients of zongzi are rice, filling, and bamboo leaves (or new leaves). Due to the different eating habits in different places, Zongzi has formed a northern and southern flavor; In terms of taste, Zongzi can be divided into salty zongzi and sweet zongzi.
The custom of eating zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival has been prevalent in China for thousands of years and has become one of the most influential and widely covered folk dietary customs of the Chinese nation, and has been passed down to Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asian countries.
historical origin
Zongzi, a type of rice dumpling, has a long history and a variety of patterns. The ancients boiled rice (or millet) wrapped in new leaves, bamboo leaves, or reed leaves, with sharp edges resembling the shape of a heart, called zongzi (zongzi). It is an ancient traditional custom to worship gods and ancestors during festivals and festivals. The Classic of Mountains and Seas – Nanshan Jing: The head of Mount Que, from the Zhaoyao Mountain to the Jiwei Mountain, covers ten mountains, 2950 miles, with a bird body and a dragon head in its divine form. The ritual of his ancestral temple: Mao, buried with a piece of jade; Do not use rice, one wall, rice and white Ying as mats.
Zongzi was originally used as a tribute to worship gods and ancestors during the Dragon Boat Festival; By the Jin Dynasty, it had already been popularized throughout the country and officially designated as food for the Dragon Boat Festival. In the “Fengtu Ji” of the Jin and Zhou dynasties, it is said that “during the midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, we cook cornstarch.” The cornstarch is wrapped in zizania leaves (zizania leaves) to form cow horns, known as “cornstarch.”; Using bamboo tubes to seal and bake rice, it is called “tube zongzi”. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, millet was soaked in ash water from plants and trees. Due to the presence of alkali in the water, millet was wrapped in bamboo leaves in a square shape and cooked to become Guangdong alkaline water zongzi.
evolution
Zongzi, also known as “corn millet”, “drum dumplings”, etc. The original work of the word “Zong” is “糉񌊉񌊉񌊉񌊉񌊉񌊉񌊉秚秚秚秚秚秚秚秚秚秚秚秚秚秚秚. In the “Fengshi Ji” written by Zhou Chu, the Prefect of Xinping in the Western Jin Dynasty, the term “Jiaoshu” was explicitly mentioned: “In the middle of summer, at the end of the fifth year, Fang Boxie reached the extreme. Enjoying Jiaoshu, the turtle scales were Shunde.”.
During the Jin Dynasty, zongzi was officially designated as a food for the Dragon Boat Festival. According to the “Yueyang Fengtu Ji” written by the local people, “It is common to wrap millet with wild rice leaves and cook them until they are ripe. They are eaten from May 5th to the summer solstice, and are called zongzi and millet.” During the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, mixed zongzi appeared. The rice is mixed with animal meat, chestnuts, red dates, red beans, etc., resulting in an increase in variety. Zongzi is also used as a gift for communication.
By the Tang Dynasty, Zongzi rice had become “as white as jade”, and its shape appeared cone and diamond. The Japanese literature records “Zongzi of the Tang Dynasty”. During the Song Dynasty, there was already “preserved rice dumplings”, which means that fruits were added to the rice dumplings. The poet Su Dongpo once said, “I see yangmei in the zongzi.”. At this time, there were advertisements made with Zongzi stacked into pavilions and wooden carts, indicating that eating Zongzi was very fashionable in the Song Dynasty.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zongzi became an auspicious food. According to Qu Dajun’s “Guangdong New Language” in the Qing Dynasty, “From the first day of the fifth lunar month to the fifth day, the millet is tied with zongzi heart grass and rolled with new leaves.” It is said that at that time, all the scholars who took the imperial examination had to eat the “brush zongzi” specially made by their families before going to the examination room, which looked thin and long like a brush, homophonic with “must hit”, in order to win praise.
At the beginning of May every year, Chinese people soak glutinous rice, wash the leaves, and wrap Zongzi at home, with a wide variety of designs and colors. From the filling, Beijing jujube zongzi, which is often wrapped with small dates in the north, is more common; In the south, there are bean paste, fresh meat, ham, egg yolk and other fillings, with Zongzi in Jiaxing, Zhejiang as the representative.

Local characteristics

Eating zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival is a widely popular traditional custom in China. The main ingredients of zongzi are rice, filling, and bamboo leaves (or new leaves). The “plant leaves” used to wrap Zongzi are collectively called zongzi leaves. The traditional form of Zongzi is a triangle, which is usually named according to the inside. The types of Zongzi can be divided into two categories: salty and sweet Zongzi; From the filling of Zongzi, salty zongzi include meat zongzi, bacon egg yolk zongzi, mushroom zongzi, abalone zongzi, lotus seed zongzi, etc., and sweet zongzi include fruit zongzi, bean paste zongzi, jujube zongzi, taro zongzi, etc; In addition to these, there are also some people in certain regions who love to eat alkaline water zongzi and white zongzi. Zongzi in the north is mostly simple white rice, red beans, dates, dipped in sugar. In the south, Zongzi is rich in taste. Fresh meat, ham, clams, egg yolks, bean paste, ribs, honey dates, lotus, etc. can all become delicious in Zongzi. The shapes often reflect regional characteristics.
Zongzi: Zongzi is a long and thin quadrangle, with fresh meat, jujube paste, bean paste, lard with sand and other varieties. It has the characteristics of exquisite ingredients and fine production.
Zongzi: a representative variety of Zongzi in the south, Zongzi Zongzi has a unique shape, with a square front and a sharp corner raised at the back, like an awl. In addition to fresh meat zongzi, ham zongzi, clam shaped zongzi, and bean paste zongzi, there are also egg yolk zongzi made with salted egg yolks.
Zongzi: Zongzi is a square cone wrapped by banana leaves and weighs about half a kilogram. There are salted egg yolks, Grilled pork, bacon, braised chicken wings, etc. in glutinous rice. When hot zongzi is peeled, it has the fragrance of banana and glutinous rice first, followed by the fragrance of meat and eggs.
Minnan Zongzi: Pork dumplings and alkaline dumplings are famous at home and abroad. Braised meat zongzi is exquisitely crafted, with high-quality glutinous rice being a must-have. Three layers of pork are chosen, marinated first until fragrant and rotten, and then mixed with shiitake mushrooms, shrimp, lotus seeds, braised meat soup, white sugar, and other ingredients. When eating, it is dipped in various seasonings, making it sweet and tender.
Zongzi: People in Zongzi are fond of spicy food, so they can also be sweet and spicy. The hot dumplings in Sichuan are made by soaking glutinous rice and red beans for 5 to 6 hours, pouring out water, adding pepper powder, Sichuan salt, monosodium glutamate and a little bacon, and wrapping Zongzi leaves into 60 grams of quadrangular dumplings.
Zongzi: The representative variety of Zongzi in the north, Zongzi Zongzi is a large, oblique quadrangle or triangle. Most of the products available in the market are glutinous rice dumplings. In rural areas, it is still customary to eat rhubarb rice dumplings. Sticky and fragrant, it has a special flavor. Most Zongzi in Beijing use red dates and bean paste as fillings, and a few also use preserved fruit as fillings.