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New Year's leftovers inspired delicious soup
By Xu Kuiyi and Pan Zheng |
December 26, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EVERY year on the 15th day of the first lunar month, families in rural Jiading District will cook Henian soup. What is the origin of this unique tradition?
Back in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a famous man lived in the region called Tang Shisheng, who was honored as one of the "four top teachers of Jiading." He was very knowledgeable but his family was poor. One year, one of his students was promoted to a high position and returned to Jiading to visit Tang on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
Tang was happy but worried - he was happy for the achievement of his student, but also worried that he was too poor to hold a good reception for the student.
On that day, Tang talked with the student for a while and asked his wife to prepare the dinner. However, Tang's family was so poor that his wife could not think of anything good to treat the student.
Then she took the offerings originally for god, such as red dates, chufa, water chestnut, tofu and fried dough sticks and mixed them with left-over cold noodles, dumplings, rice and vegetables into one pot and cooked a pot of soup.
The student thought the soup was very delicious. After the dinner, he asked Tang: "That soup was pretty good, but I still don't know its name." Tang hesitated for a while and answered: "Today is the 15th day of the first lunar month, still in the Lunar New Year's holiday. Since this soup is made from dishes left over after the New Year's celebration, it can be called Henian (New Year celebration) soup."
Since that time, it has become a local tradition to have Henian soup on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
Back in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a famous man lived in the region called Tang Shisheng, who was honored as one of the "four top teachers of Jiading." He was very knowledgeable but his family was poor. One year, one of his students was promoted to a high position and returned to Jiading to visit Tang on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
Tang was happy but worried - he was happy for the achievement of his student, but also worried that he was too poor to hold a good reception for the student.
On that day, Tang talked with the student for a while and asked his wife to prepare the dinner. However, Tang's family was so poor that his wife could not think of anything good to treat the student.
Then she took the offerings originally for god, such as red dates, chufa, water chestnut, tofu and fried dough sticks and mixed them with left-over cold noodles, dumplings, rice and vegetables into one pot and cooked a pot of soup.
The student thought the soup was very delicious. After the dinner, he asked Tang: "That soup was pretty good, but I still don't know its name." Tang hesitated for a while and answered: "Today is the 15th day of the first lunar month, still in the Lunar New Year's holiday. Since this soup is made from dishes left over after the New Year's celebration, it can be called Henian (New Year celebration) soup."
Since that time, it has become a local tradition to have Henian soup on the 15th day of the first lunar month.
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