Although the rice dumplings are small, they have been used throughout ancient and modern times, showing the inheritance and beauty of Chinese culture. What did ancient rice dumplings look like? What creative inspiration does zongzi bring to people? Let’s take a look at the ingenuity of rice dumplings through the ages.
What did ancient rice dumplings look like? In the De'an County Museum in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, there is a pair of rice dumplings unearthed from ancient tombs in the Southern Song Dynasty. According to the inscriptions on the ancient tomb, the owner of the tomb, Zhou, was buried in 1274 AD, 750 years ago.
Li Jia, commentator of De'an County Museum in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province: The tomb owner may have liked to eat rice dumplings before he was alive, so he brought the rice dumplings to the coffin. In ancient times, rice dumplings were placed in coffins to express condolences, and the rice dumplings were placed in pairs, which also had a beautiful meaning.
What kind of utensils were used to cook rice dumplings in ancient times? At the Kaizhou Museum in Chongqing, the bronze steamer of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a national first-class cultural relic on display, is a bronze vessel used for cooking food.
Liu Bingshu, deputy director of Kaizhou District Museum: This artifact has a steamer on top and a cauldron on the bottom, with 11 wall holes of varying sizes in the middle. When using it, we fill the lower cauldron with water, then put the food in the steamer, then place the steamer on top of the cauldron, and place the entire utensil on the fire before use. In ancient times, people steamed food by wrapping meat in leaves, which is similar to the way we steam rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival today.
Zongzi is not only a food for the Dragon Boat Festival. In the Tang Dynasty, it has become a snack that appears in the market during festivals and all seasons. Nowadays in Shaanxi, there are nine rice dumplings that were popular in the Tang Dynasty. As the name suggests, there are nine rice dumplings, one large and eight small, with the big one on top and the small one on the bottom. They are connected in a string and tied with silk threads of nine colors. They are colorful. Delicious and beautiful.
Wang Zhi, Deputy Director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province: Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty held a banquet for all ministers and presented them with nine rice dumplings. Because of this incident, Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty even wrote a poem. The poem says, "Flowers compete with each other in four seasons, and nine rice dumplings compete with each other."
For thousands of years, people have given various ingenuities to Zongzi.
Crabs are abundant in Zhujia Village, Lishui District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Local villagers came up with the idea of using slender herbs to weave crab-like rice dumplings.
Wu Zhiping, inheritor of intangible cultural heritage in Lishui District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province: Two very important techniques are to hang it up and put it on, making it look like a mat. It is double-layered and hollow inside.
Gently pull the sides of the woven rice dumpling, then fill in glutinous rice, red beans and other fillings, seal the mouth, and the lifelike crab rice dumpling is born.
The shape of rice dumplings also brings a lot of inspiration to people.
Jingdezhen, the millennium-old porcelain capital of Jiangxi, launched a Dragon Boat Festival ceramic rice dumpling this year, which can be used as a pen holder or flower utensil, making food practical.
Dough sculpture artists in Yantai, Shandong Province, create unique dough sculptures of rice dumplings.
Pastry chef Qu Baole: Jiaodong dough sculptures are a famous local intangible cultural heritage. For many important festivals, we will make dough sculptures to add to the festive atmosphere.
(Headquarters reporters Zhao Jing, Cao Yu, Zhao Xuefeng, Zhang Shuang, Qin Yi)
