Steamed Egg with Preserved Eggs from Qingjiang

Steamed Egg with Preserved Eggs from Qingjiang

　　The people of Qingjiang in Xingzi Town, Lianzhou City, celebrate the Spring Sacrifice Festival every year. During the festival, the main foods are egg cakes and egg dishes, among which the steamed egg is considered the finest of all egg cakes. Why celebrate the Spring Sacrifice Festival, and why cook steamed eggs? There is a beautiful legend behind it. It is said that long ago, there were no oxen in the human world—plowing fields was done entirely by human labor, which was extremely hard. One day, the Jade Emperor, disguised as a mortal, came down to the human world and saw farmers stripped to the waist, drenched in sweat, tugging at plows to till the land. The Jade Emperor walked up to the plowmen and said, “Old sirs, why don’t you take a rest?” The people replied, “The planting season is about to pass, how can we afford to rest?” Hearing this, the Jade Emperor said nothing more and silently walked away. On his way back to heaven, he kept thinking about the arduous sight of people toiling in the fields, so he decided to send oxen down to the human world to help with the work. From then on, humans and oxen became good friends. But over time, the oxen grew lazy and were unwilling to pull the plows. As the spring plowing season approached and people didn’t know what to do, they grew extremely anxious. The Golden Ox Star, learning of this, descended to earth to advise the oxen—but the oxen showed no sign of remorse. The Golden Ox Star then issued an order: “The fifth Wu day after the Beginning of Spring is the Spring Sacrifice Day. On that day, you must rise early. If you wake up later than people, your strength will be borrowed by them, and you will forever be under their command.” The oxen remained indifferent and continued their lazy ways even on the morning of the Spring Sacrifice Day. Because people had risen earlier than the oxen, they had the strength to make the oxen obedient. Those that refused to obey were tied by the nose or whipped with a lash. Only then did the oxen regret not heeding the Golden Ox Star’s advice and had no choice but to submit meekly. Seeing that the oxen had finally become obedient, people immediately bought some good food, ate their fill, and prepared to plow and start spring farming. Early in the spring, it was also the season when hens and ducks laid fewer eggs, so farmers mainly cooked chicken and duck eggs as the main dish. On this day, people would also teach newly acquired oxen how to plow. It is said that on this day, oxen are the most docile and easiest to train in pulling plows and harrows. Since then, every year on the Spring Sacrifice Day, people have celebrated the “Spring Sacrifice Festival” to prepare for spring plowing. During the festival, having grown accustomed to various egg dishes, some food enthusiasts tried stuffing minced pork belly and assorted vegetables, among other fillings, into hollowed-out egg whites and yolks (as if packing the fillings into a little purse), then frying them in oil. The taste turned out to be truly delicious, and thus they were called “steamed purses” or “steamed eggs.” In Qingjiang, there’s a saying: “If you haven’t eaten a steamed egg during the Spring Sacrifice Festival, it’s as if you haven’t celebrated the festival at all.” (Source: "Fudi Qingyuan Zhi Qingyuan Techan yu Meishi" [Delicacies and Specialties of Qingyuan, the Blessed Land], Author: Ouyang Zaizhong)