Bo Cake (Ba Cake) originated from Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, Fujian Province. It began in the early Qing Dynasty. It is a unique mooncake culture and an inheritance of history by the people of southern Fujian. According to legend, the Mid-Autumn Festival cake game was invented by Zheng Chenggong when he was stationed on Gulangyu Island to alleviate the soldiers' Mid-Autumn lovesickness and encourage morale.

The Mid-Autumn Festival cake gambling culture is very popular in southern Fujian. In the past, Mid-Autumn Festival cake gambling was usually a traditional method of gambling. For example, the prizes were usually Hui cakes. Betting on pie is purely for fun. And in terms of time, local residents do not play before the first day of August in the lunar calendar. The normal time for gambling is from the first day of August in the lunar calendar to the 15th day of August in the lunar calendar, which is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In the beginning, pie betting was a game for literati. Later, it also became popular among guilds and shops in the industrial and commercial circles. In order to avoid the suspicion of "gambling" when throwing dice, some merchants first offer Mid-Autumn cakes to the God of Wealth, and then "Bu Xin Cup" to bet on the cakes. The largest Mid-Autumn cake is called "Gantou" (ie "Aotou"), or "Bo" meaning first. This kind of activity existed until the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Extended information:

Rules for gambling

Each cake will have 1 "number one", 2 "double" and 4 "three reds" 8 were "fourth place", 16 were "two moves", and 32 were "first show". There are 63 pieces of cake in the plenary meeting, which contains the number seventy-nine and sixty-three, which is an auspicious number. The number ninety-nine and eighty-one is the number used by emperors, and the number eighty-nine and seventy-two is the number of thousands of years. Zheng Chenggong was granted the title of King of Yanping, so he used the number sixty-three. There are sixty-three pieces of cake, big and small, representing respectively the number one scholar, the second person, the third flower, the Jinshi, the Juren, and the scholar. Use 6 dice to throw in a large porcelain bowl.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Cake Betting