CH 71

As it turns out, this dish of roasted sheep was the customary main dish in a Jin Liao New Year's Eve feast; it was expected to be served at such occasions to symbolize that the coming year would be happy and peaceful and that the country would prosper while the people would be at peace. Therefore in the hearts of the people of Jin Liao, it was no less important than praying for blessings or offering sacrifices to the gods and ancestors. Even people who were very impoverished and could not afford a whole sheep also felt the need to buy morsels of sheep such as mutton, mutton tripe and sheep bones in order to prepare such a dish. Those people who were carrying this important dish into the hall were perennially working in the kitchen; thus, they did not recognise Su Yi. If that were not the case, even if they were at their last gasp, they would not have dared to let him lift the dish, much less because of a simple case of diarrhoea.