MUZIChinese Matrix
Beginning of Autumn · FFET10327
Tie qiu biao is a custom of eating meat dishes around Start of Autumn; Beijing dishes include stewed meat, pork dumplings, grilled meat and lamb hot pot.
Autumn begins: cool winds arrive and crops start to ripen
Tie qiu biao is a custom of eating meat dishes around Start of Autumn. Dishes include stewed meat, chicken and duck, pork dumplings, meat grilled on a griddle and lamb hot pot, as documented in a 2022 account. The custom is said to have begun in Beijing, but that origin claim lacks a source or date.
Tie qiu biao is a custom of eating meat dishes around Start of Autumn: stewing meat, wrapping it in dumplings or going out for grilled meat.1,2
Start of Autumn is the solar term that opens the autumn season. No dated original text for the custom was found: Qing dynasty weighing on Start of Autumn is a reported tradition retold in 2022, while the claim that the custom began in Beijing also lacks a source or date.1,2,3
The custom is said to have begun in Beijing, without a source or date; a 2022 account describes its Beijing practices.1,2
Dishes for tie qiu biao include stewed pork, stewed chicken or duck, pork dumplings, sliced meat in scallion pancake with sauced trotters, meat grilled on a griddle, and lamb hot pot. Associated old Beijing restaurants include Kaorouwan, Kaorouji and Donglaishun.2
Large pieces of meat are stewed at Start of Autumn, though the account gives no source or date.1
The Jiujing Tushuo column covered the custom and several old Beijing restaurants in 2022.2
Reportedly, in Qing-dynasty Beijing people were weighed on a hanging scale on Start of Autumn and compared with their weight at Start of Summer; whoever had lost weight ate meat. The 2022 Beijing Daily column passes this on with the words it is said.
Told in: Told in Beijing. The 2022 Beijing Daily column retells it with the words it is said, and no dated text recording it was found.
