A Legend Related to the Origin of the Cold Food Day
2 min readAccording to the legend，during the Spring and Autumn Period，a person named Jie Zhitui followed his master Chong’er，the prince of Jin，and stayed with him during allthe 19 years when the prince was in exile.
Jie Zhitui was so loyal to his master thatonce when the prince was starved to death，Jie cut one piece of flesh from his leg to feed his master so as to save his life.However，when the prince ascended the throne and became king of the Jin state，he forgot about Jie Zhitui completely.He awarded all hsi other followers except Jie.Jie，on his part，left his master with his old mother without even one word of complaint.The local people were very indignant about this and they compiled a rhyme to satirize the king.The king learned about this andin order not to ruin his reputation，he ordered his men to go go Jie’s home to bring him back，yet they failed to find Jie.The king then learned that Jie had hidden in the Mian Mountain，so he ordered his men to search the mountain，again，they failed to find Jie.
The king knew that Jie was a filial son，so he thought if he set the mountain on fire，Jie，for his mother’s sake，would definitely come out.Based on thisthought，he ordered his men to set the mountain on fire.The fire lasted three wholedays and nights，yet to the king’s disappointment，Jie never came out.In the end，Jie and his mother’s burned bodies were found beside a tree.That was the 103th day after the Winter Solstice.The local people admired Jie Zhitui for his moral integrity.Tocommemorate him，they ate cold food and restrained from making fire on that day and the following two days.This is how hanshi，the Cold Food Day，came into being.
