It's getting longer and warmer every day, and the Dragon Boat Festival is coming before you know it. There are people selling red paper gourd, mugwort and multicolored silk thread in the streets and alleys of Chaoyang. The long ears of the paper gourd floating in the breeze are wrapped in wormwood sachets, and the festive atmosphere is strong.
There are also thin straw stalks with dragon tails made of red, green and round pieces of cloth, as well as small curtains and quilted quilts. Lotus leaves are wrapped around the neck of the cloth, holding the dry Kun circle high in one hand and the pike in the other, which is very powerful.
People in every household soak the yellow rice early, and then wrap the yellow rice dumplings with cooked reed leaves and iris. A dozen eggs should be boiled in the zongzi pot. Close to the hutongs and alleys, you can smell the thick zongzi fragrance from a distance. After the dark green leaves of zongzi are opened, the bright yellow pearl-like zongzi is wrapped in red dates, and then dipped in jujube honey and Sophora japonica honey, which tastes sticky and soft. It really has a special flavor!
Speaking of it, this yellow rice zongzi has many indissoluble bonds with Chaoyang.
This package of zongzi is made of millet. Millet has been the main crop in northern China since ancient times.
The burnt millet and millet found in the Neolithic site in Chaoyang are nothing new. The largest cellar was found in the Shuiquan site in Kazuo county, where carbonized grains were preserved. According to calculations, the largest cellar originally contained more than 4,000 kilograms of millet, an amazing number.
Archaeological excavations prove that Chaoyang is the earliest place to grow millet and millet in northern China. According to historical records, "Huangdi cooked the valley for porridge." It also confirms the cultivation of Chaoyang millet from another side.
"Su" has been mentioned many times in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins. The ancients said: "Rice, rice, millet and millet are the six cereals that people eat." "Millet" here is a sticky yellow rice. The word "millet" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions has the image of millet at the top, and the millet seeds that fall off when the millet matures are at the bottom left.
China's earliest collection of poems, The Book of Songs? Zhou Wei? There are also many poems in Good Year. Millet was not only the staple food of people, but also used to make wine, so millet occupied a special position in people's diet at that time.
In ancient times, the dependence on millet made ancestors worship millet, which is the worship of plants in primitive religion. Its sacrificial way is the annual millet sacrificial ceremony.
Since the sacrifice of millet, corn millet has been produced. The earliest record of Zongzi was Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Later, the local customs in the Western Jin Dynasty were: "Midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, cooking millet. Note: the end, the beginning, is also called May 5th. A corn is wrapped in leaves, which symbolizes that the package of yin and yang will not come loose. " In the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Fan's "Temple Fair System" contained: "Corn millet is recommended in midsummer", which shows that corn millet is also used to worship ancestors from summer to the sun. These records show that cornu millet is the earliest zongzi, which first appeared in northern China.
According to textual research, the corn millet used for sacrifice is also related to the ancient use of horns as wine glasses to worship the land gods and the valley gods. The shape of the horn millet is to imitate the horn and wrap it with leaves. Corner millet (zongzi) has gradually changed from the initial imitation competition to today's funnel quadrilateral.
At least in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, corn millet in the north and zongzi in the south were collectively called "zongzi", which gradually became a traditional festival food with China flavor. From the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jiuzi Zongzi, Qiao Zong Zongzi, Baisuo Zongzi, Nizi Zongzi and Ai Xiang Zongzi came out one after another.
If Chaoyang is the earliest place where millet was planted in the north of China, then Chaoyang, which is rich in aquatic plants, should at least be one of the birthplaces of zongzi.
Nowadays, eating zongzi in memory of Qu Yuan is a very popular saying. In fact, to explore the origin of this festival food custom, corn millet is the origin of zongzi.
Speaking of zongzi, it was not to commemorate Qu Yuan at first, but later, the initial sacrifice to the valley went all the way to Jiaosu, from which it evolved into zongzi. Later, the combination of Zongzi and Qu Yuan was a perfect combination, which gave Zongzi a new connotation. It shows the wisdom and cleverness of the Chinese nation.
Even Mr. Wen Yiduo, who revealed the true origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, is very much in favor of maintaining relevant traditions and admires that these legends contain "supreme wisdom" and far-reaching significance.
By the way, according to Mr Wen Yiduo's research, the Dragon Boat Festival is an ancestor worship festival for people who worship the dragon totem in ancient times.