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Story 77: Tang He and Population Dumplings

Tang He and Population Dumplings

Author: Anonymous

Chinese New Year: also known as “Xie New Year”. In the past, there were folk customs such as worshiping gods and ancestors, and Changzhou also had the custom of making “population dumplings”. The so-called “population dumplings” are made when making rice cake dumplings, and they are specially made into several large dumplings as big as human heads, without fillings, and with red spots on them.

It is said that this custom originated in the early Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang pacified the south of the Yangtze River and conquered the world, he massacred the heroes. At that time, Tang He, the general who had made many military exploits, was stationed in Changzhou.

Zhu Yuanzhang was also very worried about him. Tang He felt that he was in danger, so he took advantage of drinking to hide himself. He often managed affairs while drunk and killed innocent people by mistake. Tang He’s lieutenant made several dummy heads and dyed them with blood to avoid wrongful killing. Whenever Tang He was drunk and angry and wanted to kill someone, he would sacrifice the dummy heads in front of the court.

Tang He was drunk, his eyes were drowsy, and he was laughing with his temples raised. The next day he forgot all about it, even if he saw the person he wanted to kill, nothing would happen. Therefore, the deputy general secretly ordered that every family use rice flour to make several fake heads to prevent Tang He from being killed by mistake and to ensure the safety of the population.

This was called “population dumplings” and spread as one of the New Year customs. Later, people thought it was unlucky to have one’s head during the New Year, so they changed it to longevity peach, etc., but they still lit it up with red.