Dumplings, symbols of wealth and living legends.

If you look for something that clearly represents Chinese culture, dumplings should be at the top, especially in northern China, where dumplings are so important that they say, "There is nothing as delicious as dumplings." For the Chinese, dumplings are not just a food, but an important part of a long-standing culture, a symbol of the celebration of Chinese New Year, and a great food that is used to represent joy.

Today, although dumplings have become edible food at all times without waiting for Chinese New Year, one thing that remains the same is to symbolize family presence, good cooking together, and passing on goodwill through a dough that encapsulates auspiciousness in every word.

1,800 years ago, from medicine to the menu of celebration,

When did the dumplings occur? It is not clearly written, but it is inferred that the age was probably more than 1,800 years old. In ancient times it was called Jiaoor (

One of the most prevalent dumpling advent legends is the story of Doctor Zhang Zhijing (), the master of Eastern Han medicine. Doctor Zhang was a noble-minded doctor, not allergic to craftsmanship. Healing people universally, no matter how poor there is, without class discrimination. One year's freezing winter. On his way back to his hometown in Nanyang, Doctor Zhang witnessed poor villagers suffer from cold sickness. Most distressing is that many people even fester their ears because they were bitten by snow.

Doctor Zhang ordered the students to set up a potion and devise a special medicine recipe to treat the condition specifically. The potion consisted of goat meat, chili peppers, and hot herbs to warm the body. It was finely chopped with goat meat, wrapped in a kneading dough and molded into a shape similar to the ear, as a way of solving the sprains, then boiled and distributed to the villagers with hot broth.

The result was that the villagers' bodies warmed up, and the ears gradually disappeared. The villagers took Doctor Zhang's medicine continuously until Chinese New Year, and celebrated the New Year together in a healthy manner. To commemorate the doctor's gratitude, the villagers imitated the method of wrapping the dough and eventually developed it into a dumpling menu.

The mythology of man.

In addition to the legend of Doctor Zhang, the dumplings are linked to the myth of the creation of the world of the god who created man from clay. It is said that while the god was molding man and woman, the weather was so cold that the clay crushed, especially the ears that came out of his head.

So the gods solved the problem by punching holes in their ears and putting a yarn around them, and the end of the other thread was tied to the mouth of the doll to hold their ears in place, so the humans took the initiative to make dumplings shaped like ears to commemorate the grace of the gods, with the connotation of the word "yarn" in Chinese, pronounced "Xian," synonymous with the word "filling" in the dumplings.

Auspicious meaning hidden in shape

It is a food with a long foundation, an auspicious food. Therefore, the way to make and eat dumplings is sure to come with meticulousness and a kind of symbolism that can hardly be said to convey everything. It meets the purpose of reinforcing auspiciousness. What is there? Let's see.

• Ancient silver shape: The shape of the dumpling, in addition to being like an ear leaf, bears a resemblance to the "yuan bao" or traditional Chinese silver lump. Eating dumplings on New Year's Day is therefore like bringing money into the body.

• Eat leftover: There is a belief that dumplings should be made in case of a lot, so that they do not eat until they are exhausted. To be dislocated that next year there will be plenty of food to eat, and there is no money to lack.

• Rice Chest Pattern: Villagers with farming careers often flirt dumplings to form a pattern resembling wheat ears, praying for the next year's produce to be plentiful.

• Puffiness of the dumpling body: A good dumpling must have a good convex bloated appearance. If the dumpling body is too flat, it may lead to poverty.

• Pleated count: Pleated marks on dumplings are often an auspicious number based on each family's beliefs.

• The sound of mincing dumplings: The louder and the longer the better. Because the sound of mincing meat and vegetables together synonymous with the word meaning of wealth, the harder the mince and the longer the mince is like proclaiming wealth.

• White thread in the dumpling filling: Some areas have the custom of hiding white thread in the dumpling filling. Who has eaten dumplings with hidden white thread is believed to live as long as the yarn, others hide silver coins, conveying a financial fortune.