The dumpling is a typical symbol of Chinese food and has now gained popularity all over the world. As one of the most traditional Chinese foods, now the dumpling continues to serve as a staple food for people living in North China. Baking dumplings on New Years Eve has always been the most important activity for the spring festival. Why do the Chinese make dumplings during the spring festival? In this article, I would like to tell you the reason and history of the Chinese dumpling.
In English, “Dumpling” is also called Chinese meat ravioli or substantial stuffed dumpling, but in Chinese pinyin, it is called Jiaozi. In fact, its primitive name is “Jiaoer”. Jiaoer was developed by Zhang Ji (Saint in Medicine). Zhangji’s Jiaoer soup to dispel the cold has reached modern times.
More than 1800 years ago, Zhang Ji was born in Nan yang city, Henan province. You can see that the history of the dumpling is more than 1800 years. Zhang was the founder of Chinese medicine. He had super skills in medical treatment, believe me, even now there are really rare people who can reach his level. With super medication skills, Mr. Zhang performed outstanding feats in the practice of medicine. Not only did he bring the patients back to life, he also treated everyone (rich and poor) with care. His hands saved many lives.
When Zhang was the oldest in Changsha, he often cured diseases for ordinary people. One year, a pestilence swept through his area, he installed a large pot to boil medicine to offer treatments, and he was loved and respected by the local people. When he retired from the office, on his way back to his hometown, he saw that many people were suffering from cold and hunger and their ears were badly hurt from the cold. Later, she learned that many people were contracting severe typhoid fever and many of them were dying from it. Zhang was really sad about it, then he was determined to save all the poor. He asked his students to prepare the large pot to boil the medicinal soup he had developed.
The recipe for their soup is Jiaoer. She used the wrappers to hold the lamb and other dissipative cold ingredients she found, and put them in the large pot to bring to a boil. After taking the Jiaoer soup, all the people who suffered from cold felt hot and their ears became warm. As a result, all the people were cured with this cold soup that dissipated just before New Years Eve. On New Year’s Day, to remember recovery and the New Year, people still had Jiaozi (dumpling) that day.
That is the history of the dumpling and why Chinese people eat dumplings during the spring festival.
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