Taboo and side effects of Chongyang cake

The annual Double Ninth Festival is a festival for the elderly. Filial children always buy some double ninth cakes for the elderly on this day. However, as more and more senile diseases haunt the elders, we should be careful when eating Chongyang cake. Professor Tong Bende, director of the Nutrition Department of Changzheng Hospital affiliated to the Second Military Medical University, pointed out that as a snack, Chongyang cake should not be eaten on an empty stomach. Chongyang cake is a food with high carbohydrate, high fat and low protein. Eating on an empty stomach will lead to excessive gastric acid secretion, pantothenic acid and even heartburn, especially in patients with stomach diseases, which are more likely to induce diseases.

In the process of making Chongyang cake, in order to make the cake sweet and delicious, more sugar or even lard is usually put in, and the commonly used material glutinous rice is indigestible food, so many people are not suitable for eating Chongyang cake. Professor Tong reminded the following people to pay attention to eating Chongyang cake, eat less and be careful not to. Later generations still have the habit of eating "Double Ninth Festival" on this day. That's because where there are no mountains, there is no height to climb, and some people just want to climb up and eat cakes. If you don't climb the hill, you will rise step by step. Because it is specially eaten in Chongyang, it is named "Chongyang cake". In the Tang Dynasty, because Liu Yuxi didn't dare to use the word "cake" when writing poems, the Double Ninth Festival had another allusion called "cake". Shao Tinglu: "When I wrote the poem" Nine Days ",I wanted to use the word" cake ",so I stopped." In this way, Song Qi joked: "Liu Lang dare not mention the word cake, a hero in the poem."

In ancient times, Chongyang cake was very particular, with candied fruit and dates embedded in it. At the beginning, the wind was tight and it was a good season to fly kites. So, at this time, people are going to fly kites in the countryside. In ancient times, the Double Ninth Festival was also a festival for horse riding, military training and shooting. The Book of Rites and the Moon Order records the system of ancient emperors hunting and practicing martial arts in September. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was stipulated that the Double Ninth Festival was a festival for military exercises. According to the Records of the Southern Qi Dynasty, before Emperor Wu usurped the throne to establish a dynasty, in today's Xuzhou, the Double Ninth Festival rode horses on Xiang Yu's circus platform. After he acceded to the throne, he set September 9 as the day for riding horses, archery and reviewing troops. According to legend, the popular Chongyang cake evolved from the dry food distributed to the soldiers of the three armed forces that year. In Tang Dezong, it is stipulated that February, March and September 9th are three festivals. Since then, the custom activities of the Double Ninth Festival have spread all over the country. When climbing Chongyang Mountain, Tang Dezong also encouraged people to practice martial arts and shooting, and to exercise riding skills. This style has been inherited to the Qing Dynasty. Until the Republic of China, Zeng Yan took advantage of the significance of climbing mountains and practicing martial arts in Chongyang and designated September 9 as the "Sports Festival".

In the past, the Double Ninth Festival was also called "Daughter's Day" because it had to take a married daughter home for the holidays. On September 9, it happened to meet February 9, and "nine" is homophonic with the "nine" of longevity, which is a symbol of longevity. Therefore, in recent years, the Chinese government has designated September 9 as "Day for the Elderly", also known as "Day for Respecting the Elderly". In our country, respecting the elderly has become a common practice, and respecting the elderly has always been a fine tradition of the Chinese nation. This traditional virtue is also reflected in festivals and customs. Besides drinking dogwood, chrysanthemum wine and eating chrysanthemum, Chongyang has many ways of eating, the most famous of which is eating cakes. It is especially windy to eat Chongyang cake in the north.

According to Xijing Miscellanies, in the Han Dynasty, September 9th was the custom of eating Peng bait, which was the original Double Ninth Festival cake. The bait is an ancient cake. "Zhou Li" has bait for sacrifice or banquet. There were millet cakes in the Han Dynasty, which may not be far from today's cakes. Peng bait, presumably similar to millet cake and so on. In the Song Dynasty, eating Chongyang cake was popular. Cake is homophonic with Gao, and eating cake is for good luck, so it is favored by people.

Stick some coriander leaves as a sign, and put some rough dried fruits such as olives, dates and walnuts in the middle; There are three or two layers of fine flower cakes, each with fine candied dried fruits, such as preserved apples, peaches, apricots and dates. Money flower cake is basically the same as fine flower cake, but smaller, just like "money", which is mostly the food of the upper nobility.

It is said that in the early years, people did not put dates and chestnuts on flour cakes, or sticky cakes made of steamed glutinous rice and yellow wheat, which looked like "gold-plated" and "silver-plated" flower cakes.

The legend of eating Chongyang cake

According to legend, Kang Hai, the top scholar of the Ming Dynasty, was a martial artist in Shaanxi. In mid-August, he fell ill in Chang 'an. After the announcement in August, the newspaper reporter who reported the good news took pains to send the good news to the martial arts school, but Kang Hai hasn't arrived home yet. No one at home sent a gratuity, and the newspaper refused to leave, so we must wait until Kang Hai came back. When Kang Hai gets home, it's already the Double Ninth Festival. At this time, he sent a newspaper, paid him, and steamed a pot of cakes as dry food for his return trip. More cakes are steamed and distributed to neighbors. Because this kind of cake was used to celebrate the first place in Kang Hai, it was a good sign that families with children attending school later distributed steamed cakes on the Double Ninth Festival. The custom of eating cakes on the Double Ninth Festival spread like this. Chongyang Cake, also known as Flower Cake or Chongyang Flower Cake, is a traditional festival cake in China. As the name implies, it is the Double Ninth Festival in September in the summer calendar. The method of making and eating this kind of cake varies from place to place, and there are also different opinions about its origin and the meaning of folk culture.

It is generally believed that Chongyang cake originated from the custom of climbing on the Double Ninth Festival. According to Wu Jun's Continued Harmony in the Southern Dynasties, in the Han Dynasty, Runan people learned immortals from Fei Changfang. One day, Fei Changfang told the students that there was a great disaster in your family on September 9. You can teach your family to sew a cloth bag, put the dogwood in it and tie it on your arm. At that time, climbing mountains and drinking chrysanthemum wine could eliminate the disaster. Huan Jing acts according to his words and deeds, which is really safe. Later generations followed suit, thus forming a set of double ninth festival customs such as climbing mountains, drinking chrysanthemum wine and inserting dogwood on the ninth day of September. Since the Song Dynasty, the custom of eating "Double Ninth Cake" on the Double Ninth Festival has been officially recorded, such as Wu's "Liang Lumeng", which records the custom of paying attention to nine on the Double Ninth Festival in Lin 'an (Hangzhou): "On this day, all shops in Duren steamed cakes and sugar noodles ... and inserted them into Caiqi Yang, named" Double Ninth Cake ". "For example, the second volume of" A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Capital "written by Dong and Yu Yizheng later also contains the custom that Beijing attaches importance to Nine:" The cake shop is named' Flower Cake Flag' with paper colored flags as the standard. "This tradition of inserting the national flag on the flower cake has not changed so far. The original intention is that due to the limitation of urban landforms and natural resources, it is inconvenient for ordinary citizens to climb mountains to avoid disasters or collect dogwood. Therefore, eating cakes instead of climbing mountains, inserting paper flags instead of dogwood, and responding to stories with homophonic sounds are still to avoid disaster.

First, the cultural significance of Chongyang cake is concentrated on the word "cake", that is, homophonic, which is also the homophonic of various condiments used to make cakes to show good luck. For example, Xie's Five Miscellaneous Notes quoted Song Luyuan's Miscellaneous Notes at the Age of Years, saying that on the ninth day of September, "at dawn, put a piece of cake on the child's head and even wish:' May everything be high'." This ancient nation made cakes on the 9th. "Also, Sui Historical Records, which was anonymous in the Song Dynasty, said that" on September 9th, steamed cakes were made of flour, and several deer were placed on them, with the name' Stone Furnace Cake' ",and the seasoning ornaments of the cakes were homophonic. Historical data of customs such as A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital all record that parents will welcome their daughters to eat flower cakes on the Double Ninth Festival. Up to now, there is a folk saying that "on September 9th, I moved back to my daughter to rest my hands". There are condiments such as dates, chestnuts and melon seeds (kernels) in the flower cake, and there are patterns such as "barbarian king Lion" (Song's Year of Gan Chun) on the cake surface. These are "the ancients made cakes in nine days".

It is said that the custom of eating cakes on the ninth day of September was already popular in the Tang Dynasty. There is a joke in Liu Bin Tales that Yuan Deshi dare not follow the custom of "eating cakes on the ninth day of September" because his father is afraid of heights. There is also a record of "Ma Ge Cake on September 9th" in the Six Classics of Tang Dynasty, but there is no name for the Double Ninth Festival. The truth is as stated in Sui Du Taiqing's Jade Candle Collection: "At that time, Gu Mi harvested at the same time, so that it became a habit to stick to rice and taste new things." In other words, ancient people cooked millet in September, so they steamed it as a food to worship their ancestors and recommend them to try new things. Lu Yuanming's Chronological Miscellanies said that "the second society (namely, Spring Society and Autumn Society) and Chongyang still eat cakes, and Chongyang is prosperous", which can just outline the embryonic form of Chongyang cake. In the Spring and Autumn Festival, predecessors sacrificed Chongyang cake to their ancestors. According to "Sui Shu Wuxing Zhi", there was a nursery rhyme in the Northern and Southern Dynasties that "harvesting wheat in July hurts early, and eating cakes in September is just right". It is beneficial to know that this custom has a long history. Only in the Tang and Song Dynasties, with the popularity of the custom of the Double Ninth Festival, did it evolve into a special food for this festival. However, the folk significance of the celebration has remained for a long time, which can be proved by watching the records of Lu You's poems "Spinning wheat cakes to invite the elderly" and "The second society of Lu … advocates cake food".

There is also a saying that the source of Chongyang cake is the food "Peng bait" in the pre-Qin period. "Peng" refers to Peng Zi, a plant of Artemisia; "Bait" is a sticky food, which is often interpreted as "cake" in modern Chinese dictionaries, because it is known that Peng Bait is a cake-like food made of rice flour mixed with Peng Zi. Jin's Miscellanies of Xijing recorded that the handmaid of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang recalled the old things in the palace three times, and there was "September 9 ... eating tents and baits". It is speculated that this custom will not begin in the early Han Dynasty, but should be a tradition in the pre-Qin period. Book of Rites: "Shoot people with mulberry arcs and Liu, and shoot at the four corners of heaven and earth." Kong said to him, "Peng is the grass to prevent chaos." This understanding is in line with the explanation of "eating scattered bait to ward off evil spirits" in the third volume of Xijing Miscellanies. So I know that the original intention of eating Peng bait on the ninth day of September is to ward off evil spirits. However, after this custom evolved into eating cakes on Double Ninth Festival in Song Dynasty, its original meaning was forgotten.

It is also said that the Tang Dynasty examination paper found in Dunhuang (5755) means that in ancient times, there was a son named Yao, who was named Tang Hou at the age of eight and was promoted on1February 8. On September 9th, one year, Tang Yao called a meeting of world governors and entertained them with rice and wine. Di Ku died before the rice arrived. So baiguan pushed Dai to the throne. Because they have to mourn for Di Ku and can't drink, they make white dough, cakes and other foods with white rice and flax, which the governors eat when they visit their new owners. Since then, white rice balls and cakes have become the exclusive food on September 9, "never stop." Some people think that the so-called "Marco cake" in the catering department of Tangliudian on September 9 is derived from this kind of white rice flour and cake. The recipe says that "Zhang Shoumei's family attaches great importance to making rice cakes", and the raw materials are rice flour and flax. , but the preparation method is different. Therefore, the original intention of the eclipse cake on September 9th seems to be to commemorate Tang Yao's accession to the throne.

In addition, compatriots of Yi, Bai, Dong, She, Buyi, Tujia and Mulao in southern China also have the habit of eating sticky food such as cakes on the ninth day of September, but the related customs and legends are different. For example, during the Double Ninth Festival, Dong people in Jinping, Jianhe and Tianzhu all eat glutinous rice. According to legend, it is to commemorate Jiang's victory, Dong's national hero, who led the rebel army against the government. On the other hand, Tujia people in Xiangxi play glutinous rice in festivals, which means to ward off evil spirits. In short, there are many theories and it is difficult to unify them. What's the point of eating this Double Ninth Festival cake? It depends on everyone's feelings. Du men za Yong LUN Gao

The Mid-Autumn Festival has just passed.

Seeing Gao Hua busy everywhere.

With double-layer jujube millet,

Be proud of Liu Lang when cooking a banquet.

Nine pieces of eclipse cake

The light frost robe goes to the pavilion,

It's embarrassing to drink flowers and divide Cao.

Liu Lang didn't dare to write the word cake.

Empty negative poetry, colorful.

The white food hymn of the old capital

Good fruit embeds dates into mud,

The Chongyang cake feast is well documented.

Climb high and put new poems and fu,

Why is Liu Lang afraid to ask this question?