What knowledge and stories are behind eating Qingtuan during the Qingming Festival?

As spring comes and Qingming Festival approaches, a round green glutinous rice dumpling has become a hot topic online. It is the delicious Qingtuan. What is Qingtuan? Why do we eat Qingtuan during the Qingming Festival? What knowledge and stories are behind Qingtuan? Let's take a look!

Mugwort: The green glutinous rice balls all depend on it

Qingtuan, also known as Qingming fruit, Qingtuanzi, and Chuntuan, is a traditional snack that originated in the Jiangnan area. Mix wormwood juice with glutinous rice flour, then wrap in your favorite fillings, knead it into a round dumpling, and finally steam it in a pot before eating. Qingtuan is not sweet, greasy, or sticky, and has a fresh grass aroma. One bite is soul-stirring, as if you are tasting the taste of spring.

Mugwort is the "soul" of Qingtuan, which can make the glutinous rice balls appear green and "spring-like", and leave a lingering fragrance after eating. In the Jiangnan area, the air is filled with the smell of mugwort juice near Qingming Festival.

Fresh mugwort/Photographed by the author

In the countryside, it is not difficult to get mugwort, which can be found in fields, ponds, and at the foot of mountains. This inconspicuous little grass is deeply loved by people. There is a sentence in "The Book of Songs: Wang Feng: Picking Ge" that goes "He picks mugwort. One day without seeing him feels like three years."

Mugwort grows during the Qingming Festival and flourishes in May. There is a saying that goes "Plant willows during the Qingming Festival and plant mugwort during the Dragon Boat Festival". Before and after the Qingming Festival, fresh mugwort can be used to make green balls, mugwort cakes, dishes and stews. During the Dragon Boat Festival, mugwort is rolled up and tied into a bundle and inserted on the door lintel to ward off disasters and solve problems. The special aroma of mugwort can also drive away miasma and mosquitoes.

Mugwort (leaves) is also known as "medical grass" and has a place in traditional Chinese medicine. There is still a proverb circulating among the people that "If you have mugwort at home for three years, you don't need a doctor." The earliest medical prescription book discovered in my country so far, "Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases", records the efficacy and usage of mugwort leaves.

"Compendium of Materia Medica" records: Mugwort leaves are used as medicine, which are warm in nature, bitter in taste, non-toxic, purely yang in nature, and can pass through the twelve meridians. It has the effects of restoring yang, regulating qi and blood, expelling dampness and cold, stopping bleeding and stabilizing the fetus, and is also commonly used in acupuncture.

The "Pharmacopoeia" (2015 edition) records: Artemisia annua is pungent, bitter, warm, and slightly toxic. It enters the liver, spleen, and kidney meridians. It can warm the meridians and stop bleeding, dispel cold and relieve pain, and can be used externally to remove dampness and relieve itching. It is often used for vomiting blood, epistaxis, metrorrhagia, menorrhagia, fetal bleeding, cold pain in the lower abdomen, irregular menstruation, and infertility due to cold uterus; it can also be used externally to treat skin itching.

In the city, fresh mugwort may be hard to find, but products such as moxa sticks and mugwort foot bath bags are very common. It should be reminded that considering the medicinal properties of mugwort itself, whether it is eaten or used externally, the dosage and frequency should be paid attention to, and it should not exceed 3 times a week.

Traditional Red Bean Paste Green Rice Balls

The most common filling for Qingtuan is red bean paste. As people's love for Qingtuan continues to rise, many businesses have launched various new flavors of "Internet celebrity" Qingtuan in recent years, which are also very popular among young people. Let's take a look at what these Internet celebrity Qingtuan taste like:

Salted Egg Yolk Quicksand Exploding Pearl Green Rice Balls

Salted Egg Yolk and Pork Floss Green Rice Balls

Mustard and fish floss flavored glutinous rice dumpling

Pickled Pork Dumpling

Green Rice Balls with Dried Bamboo Shoots and Vegetables

It rains heavily during the Qingming Festival, a green ball expresses my longing for you

The ancient book "Sui Shi Bai Wen" records: "All things grow at this time, and they are all clean and bright, so it is called Qingming."

Qingming is one of the 24 traditional solar terms in China, and it usually falls on April 5 of the Gregorian calendar every year. Around Qingming, the weather gradually warms up and the rainfall increases. Our ancestors believed that it was a good time for farming, and farmers today also attach great importance to the "Qingming rain". At the same time, Qingming is also an important traditional sacrificial festival in my country, a day for people to pay tribute to their ancestors and remember the martyrs.

Since the Tang Dynasty, people have been going outings and picnicking while sweeping tombs and offering sacrifices during the Qingming Festival. This is because the Qingming Festival has absorbed the content of the Shangsi Festival. The Shangsi Festival, commonly known as March 3, is an ancient traditional festival in China. It is close to the Qingming Festival, when the earth is full of flowers and green willows, and all things are renewed. It is an important day for the ancients to hold outings and Fuxi (pronounced fú xì, which means bathing in the river to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters).

Qingtuan is also related to another ancient festival - Cold Food Festival. Cold Food Festival is the 105th day after the winter solstice, usually one or two days before Qingming Festival. According to folklore, it was established in the Spring and Autumn Period to commemorate Jie Zitui, a loyal minister of the State of Jin.

During the exile of Duke Wen of Jin, Chong'er, when he was starving and cold, Jie Zitui cut off his meat to offer food. Later, when Duke Wen of Jin ascended the throne, Jie Zitui lived in seclusion in the mountains with his old mother. Duke Wen of Jin repeatedly asked him to come out of the mountains to receive rewards, but Jie Zitui refused. Duke Wen of Jin then ordered to set fire to the mountains to force him to come out. Unexpectedly, Jie Zitui would rather be burned to death than come out, and finally died hugging a tree. Therefore, Duke Wen of Jin ordered that no one should light fire or cook food on this day in the future, and to commemorate Jie Zitui by banning fire and eating cold food.

On days when people couldn’t light fires to cook, people had to prepare various cold foods in advance, including the later Qingtuan (does Qingtuan become a “reserve food”?). The great Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi once wrote the poem “Qingtuan shop on Cold Food Festival, willow branches low in spring”, which added a bit of cultural charm to the small Qingtuan.

The Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival are close in time. The latter has absorbed the customs of sacrifice, fire ban and cold food from the former in the course of history. Combined with the Qingming Festival's own festival significance of "remembering the old friends", the seasonal snack Qingtuan also has a different meaning.

Nowadays, Qingtuan has become popular all over the country because of its cute appearance, soft and chewy texture, and endless fillings. "Eating Qingtuan during Qingming Festival" is not only a pursuit of delicious food, but also a way to reminisce about traditional festivals. What flavor of Qingtuan did you eat this year?