The Origin and Meaning of Qingming Tuanzi

Legend has it that one year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Li Xiucheng, the general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was chased by Qing soldiers. A farmer nearby came forward to help, disguised Li Xiucheng as a farmer and cultivated land with him. Li Xiucheng didn't get caught, and the Qing soldiers didn't stop there, so they sent more soldiers to set up posts in the village. Anyone who left the village had to be inspected to prevent them from bringing food to Li Xiucheng.

When he got home, the farmer thought about what to bring to Li Xiucheng and slipped on a clump of wormwood. When he got up, he saw that his hands and knees were stained with green. He immediately had a plan, and quickly picked some wormwood to go home, washed it, cooked it, squeezed it into glutinous rice flour and made it into zongzi.

Then put the green jiaozi in the grass and mix with the sentry at the village entrance. Li Xiucheng ate the green ball, and felt that the fragrant glutinous rice was not sticky. After dark, he bypassed the Qing army post and returned to the base camp safely. Later, Li Xiucheng ordered the Taiping Army to learn to be a youth league to defend itself against the enemy. The custom of eating dumplings spread.