Why Do We Eat Dumplings When We Bid Farewell to The old and usher a new one？

? Dumplings shape like ears， thus getting its name for the shape. It is also known as "Jiao ear"， which is its first name. In Eastern Han Dynasty， "medical saint" Zhang Zhongjing was appointed Changsha Prefecture and treated the illness of people. One year when the plague came， Zhang Zhongjing built up a stove and shelved a cauldron in Yamen to boil medicine and delivered medicine to rescue people wining the admiration of Changsha people. When retiring from Changsha on the way home， he saw poor people suffering from hunger and cold even with ears frozen to rotten， and he felt very sad. So he set up on the ground a "medical shed"， built up a stove and shelved a cauldron. He developed the "cold-dispelling Jiao ear soup"， and opened the tent at the winter solstice， to send medicine to care diseases and help the poor.

The raw materials of "cold-dispelling Jiao ear soup" contain lamb， peppers， cold-dispelling herbs. When making the soup， chop the ingredients after boiling them in the pot to make the sauce. Wrap the sauce with dough cover in the shape of ear. Then put them into the pot when they are boiled and get two Jiao ear in each bowl. People begging for medicine with rotten ears would get one bowl. After eating， their body got warm， blood flow went smoothly and ears got warmer. After eating for a while， rotten ears frostbite was cured. In the"medical shed"， Zhang Zhongjing was busying curing people from the beginning of winter to the New Year's Eve. This was spread， then people would make dumpling at every New Year's Eve with a gratitude heart for Zhang Zhongjings charity and a memorial for him. To eat dumplings when we bid farewell to the old and usher a new one has become a custom till now.

（Respondents： Shan Shouqing）