中英双语讲中国故事《饺子》 思仪

Jiaozi

Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings) is a traditional Chinese food that people usually eat during the Spring Festival. The classic fillings usually are ground meat and some vegetables. Finished jiaozi can be boiled, steamed or pan-fried. People often eat jiaozi by dipping them in vinegar and sometimes with garlic. They often drink a bowl of jiaozi soup after the meal for digestion.

Jiaozi has a history of more than 1,800 years. A story about the origin of jiaozi is widely spread among the folks, that is, Zhang Zhongjing's "Dispensing Medicine on the Winter Solstice" . During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing, the sage of Chinese medicine, from Nanyang (today's Dengzhou City, Henan Province) devoted himself to studying ancient medical books and collected a lot of effective prescriptions, wrote the classic of Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases and made great contributions to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He found many deprived people without warm clothes and sufficient food had frostbitten ears in winter. On the Winter Solstice, he asked his disciples to cook the mutton, black pepper and other cold-dispelling medicinal herbs in one pot. After cooking, they were chopped and wrapped in a thinly rolled piece of dough and given to these poor people. The folks took the food, and their frozen ears were cured. Later, people cook jiaozi during the Winter Solstice, believing that eating jiaozi on the Winter Solstice can prevent frostbite.