The dinner of the people of eastern Henan is called "drinking tea".
Li Xianli. 
On the weekend afternoon, when I rode an electric car from the county seat to my hometown in the countryside, my neighbor Brother Shuliang called: Brother, long time no see, come to my house for tea at night!”
By "drinking tea", he actually invited me to his house and drank a little wine and had dinner.
In Luyi County, Dancheng County, Shangqiu City in eastern Henan Province and the nearby urban and rural areas of Bozhou City in Anhui Province, residents call breakfast breakfast early morning and lunch as morning lunch, and "drinking tea" is given another meaning, specifically referring to eating dinner.
This may have been carried over from the difficult times of the sixties and seventies, when the masses used sweet potatoes to make sweet potato tea for dinner, or boiled water for dinner.
So to this day, when everyone meets and greets each other in the evening, they don't ask, "Have you eaten?"Instead, he casually asked, "Have you drunk tea?"It also means a greeting that is in conversation or walking and passing by.
Regarding the matter of saying "tea" at dinner, the author also heard a real misunderstanding and joke. According to historical records, "drinking tea" as a synonym for dinner has been preserved and passed down for more than 2,500 years.
One day in the 80s, a young teacher from Luyi was walking around the campus after dinner, and happened to meet a teacher who had been transferred from another province to teach in a county high school for a short time. Out of polite behavior, he stepped forward with a smile and asked casually, "Teacher, have you drunk a lot of tea?"Unexpectedly, the teacher glared at him fiercely, and hurried away angrily.
The Luyi teacher who accompanied him on the walk smiled and asked him why he was angry, and he replied: "Many teachers and students in Luyi County are rude to meIf I had drunk tea all day at night, I would have starved to deathWhat do you mean?”
A few days later, when the teacher learned about the dialect and Xi of Luyi, he smiled and said, "It's me who misunderstood everyone, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." ”
When I was writing this, I learned from the Internet that in Henan Province and other places in southern Henan and other places, residents call eating dinner "drinking soup", and when they meet in the evening, they will ask: "Have you drunk soup?"It doesn't really care if you drink soup or not, it's the equivalent of a greeting "hello" when you meet.
Henan people have a wide variety of dinners, including steamed buns, porridge, dishes, noodles, rice, etc., but some places commonly call eating dinner "drinking soup". Even if you have dinner for your guests, no matter how rich the banquet is, you will always be invited to "drink soup". People who don't understand think that the master is stingy, only let drink thin, and do not allow to eat staple food, but in fact it is a local Xi, and there are four versions in historical records.
The first is the origin of the Xi of calling eating dinner "drinking soup". Legend has it that Zhu Yuanzhang's twenty-third son, Zhu Huan (jìng), was established in Nanyang Mansion (now Nanyang, Henan) on May 12, the sixth year of Yongle (1408). Zhu Huan was extremely poor and luxurious, and the common people gave him a nickname called Zhu Wei. In order to build a luxurious palace, he expropriated violently, making the life of the people of Nanyang very difficult. Therefore, Zhu Huan forced the common people to eat only two meals a day and hand over the rest of the rations to the palace. One day, an old stonemason who participated in the construction of the palace garden was so hungry that he dug up some wild vegetables to make soup at night to satisfy his hunger. Unexpectedly, Zhu Huan was enjoying the night on the mountain, and saw smoke rising from the old stonemason's house, so he ordered the soldiers to arrest the old stonemason. Zhu Huan personally came to interrogate him why he dared to violate the ban, and the old stonemason shouted that he was not cooking privately, but was only cooking wild vegetable soup. Zhu Huan was suspicious and sent someone to check, but the result was that the old stonemason did not lie, so he had no choice but to let the old stonemason go. From then on, the old stonemason would cook wild vegetable soup to drink after work every day, and the people in the neighborhood also learned from the old stonemason, but they still didn't dare to say "Have you eaten?" when they met in the eveningInstead, they greeted each other with respect: "Have you drunk the soup?"”
The second is that eating dinner is called "drinking soup", which is said to have originated from immigrants who moved from Hongdong in Shanxi to Shangnanzhao County in Henan Province. In order to avoid the heavy taxes of the government, they lied that they would not eat at night and only drank soup, and as a result, they were exempted from donating silver for a year, so they followed suit. In fact, the real reason is probably because the people lived in poverty at that time, and they rested directly after dinner, or in order to save food, they no longer made thick rice, but used green vegetables, noodles and water to make soup to satisfy their hunger. To this day, in many parts of Henan Province, it is still Xi to drink some noodle soup, noodles and other soup foods for dinner, with some steamed buns, cakes, etc., and the Xi of "drinking soup" is still preserved.
Third, after the Yuan soldiers occupied the Central Plains, Kublai Khan, in order to accumulate food, ordered the people to eat only breakfast and lunch a day, and confiscated all the iron tools in the people, so that several families shared a kitchen knife, afraid that the people would secretly cook and eat. After a day's work, the people are already very tired, and if they are not allowed to eat dinner, how can they hold on?There was a man named Wang Er, who came home at night and was hungry, so he boiled some water and prepared to put some rice to make rice soup to drink. Unexpectedly, he was discovered by the Yuan soldiers and brought him to Kublai Khan, who ordered to be beheaded, and Wang Er shouted that he was wronged, saying that he just wanted to boil some water to drink, and did not put rice. When Kublai Khan heard this, isn't this wronged, he drank water when he was thirsty, anyway, the Central Plains was water, so that he could save food and satisfy hunger, so he let him go, and the people were allowed to cook soup, and the people took the opportunity to put some rice, and it became soup.
Fourth, according to historical records, in 536 BC (the fifth year of King Chu Ling), a great war broke out between Chu and Wu, and in the autumn of that year, King Chu Ling sent Yin Zidang to lead the army to attack Wu, garrison Yuzhang (now Yongcheng, Henan), and he personally led the army to reach the Qianxi Valley (now the city father of Bozhou). The four seasons on both sides of the vortex river are distinct, flat and vast, the scenery of this area attracts him, let him linger, this "extravagance has been very much" pay attention to the pomp of the monarch, in the following year to build Zhanghuatai, Zhanghuatai is a huge project, it takes a long time, costs a lot, "the whole state, several years are completed", also known as "thin waist palace". Because King Chu Ling's aesthetic taste is peculiar, regardless of men and women, all have a thin waist, so the ministers of the court and the central government only eat one meal a day to control their waistline, especially at night, they dare not eat, and drink tea when they are hungry. "Mozi" recorded: "In the past, the king of Chu Ling was a good man with a thin waist, so the ministers of the king of Ling were all to a meal as a festival, and then the ribs were brought, and the wall was then raised. As a result, the locals could only drink tea for dinner, so they called dinner. Later, "drinking tea" gradually became synonymous with dinner and began to eat normally, and this Xi has been preserved and passed down for more than 2,500 years.
Li Xianli, 52 years old, is a member of the Zhoukou Writers Association and a journalist.