Rice Soup that Clears the Heart 通心粥 tōng xīn zhōu

Gisela Jia

In an email that notified me that she had uploaded her child's video clips of Unit 42 story speed reading and Level 1 character dictation, our parent Elaine ended with a line about 通心粥 tōng xīn zhōu, a rice soup.

Elaine said her family is eating it today, the 13th day of the Lunar New Year, as a Toisanese tradition. Why? She said it stands for good wishes for children to 學業進步 xué yè jìn bù (improve on their school studies). She attached a link with its background.

How is 通心粥 tōng xīn zhōu related to improvement on school studies? 

通 tōng = to connect, to reach, to clear a path

心 xīn  = heart

粥 zhōu = congee, rice soup

Ancient Chinese considered 心 xīn heart as the anchor and harbor of feelings and thoughts. Although modern science has assigned this role to the brain, research in the past decade or so has revealed that our heart is a close partner of the brain in processing feelings and thoughts. (Who said Chinese people figured out lots of things early on?:)

Chinese language has many words with 心 xīn in it. These are just four from dozens of them.

用心  yòng xīn = focused (heart is used)

動心  dòng xīn = touched (heart is moved) 

心聲 xīn shēng = true voice or thought (sound of the heart)

心事 xīn shì = things that preoccupy one's mind (things of the heart) 

Similarly, 通心 tōng xīng means "clear the heart" (no blockage in this machine named "xīn").  If the heart is clear, it's like the mind is clear, and learning can be most effective.

How to express such a wish? Here comes the twist, or we should say a time-honored Chinese tradition - finding food with names sharing similar sounds to the word representing the good wish. 

In Toisanese, 通心 tōng xīn and 空心 kōng xīn sound alike. The latter means "hollow heart".  Let's not worry about the "hollow' part as now we're looking for a food that can be eaten to bring us something good.

What food has a shape with a hole? Macaroni is one we know. People in Toisan don't  have macaroni, but they have scallions. If you chop up scallions, each piece does have a hollow center.

Congee or rice soup is the soul food of Chinese people, particularly southern Chinese. Let's throw some chopped up scallion pieces on the top of a bowl of congee, then, we have the 通心粥 tōng xīn zhōu. 

Are you interested? You may check out the link shared by Elaine (in Chinese language but with pictures)

https://www.chinaqw.com/m/qx/2019/02-17/215512.shtml

This is just another example of how Chinese people, like many people in the world, are goal-directed and playful at the same time. I believe this accounts for a large part of their/our resilience.