The birthplace of Zongzi is Hunan. It is said that the purpose of eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan, who committed suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 278 BC. After hearing that, people nearby brought rice balls from their homes and threw them into the river to feed fish and shrimp. After eating enough fish and shrimp, they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. This custom has been handed down to become the present Dragon Boat Festival food dumplings, and Miluo, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, has also become the birthplace of dumplings.
Zongzi, steamed from glutinous rice wrapped with zongzi leaves, is one of the traditional festival foods of the Chinese nation. In ancient times, it was called millet in the north. In the north, millet was produced, and millet was used to make rice dumplings. It was angular and called millet. Zongzi, as one of the most profound traditional foods in Chinese history and culture, has also spread far. The custom of eating rice dumplings on the Dragon Boat Festival has been popular in China for thousands of years, and has spread to Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.
According to folklore, eating zongzi was passed down to commemorate Qu Yuan who threw himself into the river. There are many kinds of zongzi. From the filling, there are Beijing jujube zongzi wrapped with dates in the north; In the south, there are mung beans, streaky pork, bean paste, babao, ham, mushrooms, egg yolk and other fillings, among which Guangdong salty meat dumplings and Zhejiang Jiaxing dumplings are representative. In 2012, Zongzi was selected as one of the series of cuisines in the second episode of the documentary "China on the Tongue", "The Story of Main Food".