According to legend, during the Yuan Dynasty, the broad masses of people in the Central Plains refused to be subjected to the cruel rule of the Mongols and rebelled against the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to unite the resistance forces, but the officers and men of the Yuan Dynasty searched closely and suffered from the inability to pass on the news. So Liu Bowen came up with a plan, ordered Wang Zhaoguang to make cakes, and hid the note with the words "August 15th Uprising" in the cakes. Then send them to the uprising troops in various places separately, and inform them to respond to the uprising on the evening of August 15. Therefore, the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown in one fell swoop. In order to commemorate this achievement, the custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival was handed down. Especially in the northeast, there is a saying that "Da Zi was killed on August 15th".
No matter what generation the moon cake originated from, it is the wish of people all over the world to use the moon to symbolize people's reunion, the moon to symbolize people's eternal life, and to use moon cakes to express their longing for their hometown and their loved ones, and to pray for a bumper harvest and happiness.
Some people think that eating and sending moon cakes has been related to the Mid-Autumn Festival since ancient times. In fact, this is not the case. In the early Tang dynasty, it turned out that only the first day of the eighth lunar month was a festival, but there was no fifteenth day. According to legend, later, Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty visited the Moon Palace on the night of August 15th, so that the people took August 15th as the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the middle Tang dynasty, people began to go upstairs to watch the moon on the night of August 15, when there were no moon cakes. Speaking of moon cakes, they first appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, moon cakes at that time had nothing to do with the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, moon cakes were also very different from modern moon cakes, and only appeared in the food market as steamed food.
Moon cakes were really associated with Mid-Autumn Festival in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, there was a kind of mooncake filled with fruit in Beijing, and people made mooncakes themselves on the Mid-Autumn Festival to eat and give them to friends and relatives to express reunion and congratulations. At that time, the size and shape of moon cakes were very irregular and very different, and their names were quite special.
For example, in Jiexiu County, Shanxi Province, on the Mid-Autumn Festival, local people have the custom of sitting around and sharing reunion moon cakes. There are many interesting moon cakes made by them, such as crescent moon cakes for men, gourd moon cakes for women only, and moon cakes such as "the Monkey King" and "male prostitute" specially prepared for teenagers, etc. There are many names, and so on. The technology of making moon cakes has reached a very high level in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, decorative patterns such as "toad and rabbit in the moon" appeared on the cake surface of some moon cakes. Its exquisite design, beautiful composition and delicate pattern make people enjoy art, which not only fully reflects the ingenuity of mooncake makers, but also reflects the splendid culture of our great Chinese nation.
August 15th of the lunar calendar is a day for people to get together or miss their relatives and friends far away. In the Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiamen people enjoy the moon and eat Mid-Autumn moon cakes, and there is also a folk activity of "playing the champion of cake fairs" handed down from Zheng Zheng's successful expulsion of Holland and recovery of Taiwan Province, which is quite interesting. There are 63 cakes for Mid-Autumn Festival, with different sizes. * * * is divided into 6 kinds, which respectively represent the champion, second place, flower exploration, Jinshi, juren and scholar in ancient imperial examinations. Everyone takes turns to throw six dice into the bowl, and get the cake according to the number of dice put into the bowl, so as to win the "No.1 scholar" in the end. For more than 300 years, this fun-filled activity has been circulating among Xiamen people, and cake shops and factories in Xiamen will produce a large number of such cakes before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival.
It is a unique custom for Xiamen people to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival to get together and play the cake Expo champion. It is said that more than 300 years ago, when Zheng Chenggong fought against the Qing Dynasty in Xiamen, the Ministry of Zheng, Hongxu, in order to relieve the soldiers' worries, encourage and boost their morale, and help expel the Dutch colonists to recover Taiwan Province, and after some deliberation, with the staff of the rear government hall stationed at No.33-44 of Jinhong Headquarters, skillfully designed the Mid-Autumn Festival cake, so that all the soldiers could fight happily on the cool Mid-Autumn Festival night.
The cake is calculated by "meeting", and generally four or five people are suitable for a "meeting". "Hui" cake imitates the imperial examination system, and consists of one zhuangyuan cake (the largest), two opposite-hall (second-place) cakes, four three red (flower-exploring) cakes, eight four-entry (Jinshi) cakes, two-lift (juren) cakes 16 cakes and 32 one-show (scholar) cakes. This is a symbol of the ancient four-level imperial examination. Ancient government-level examinations and young students were called scholars; After having obtained the township examination (provincial level), the successful candidate is called a juror; Those who meet in the capital ceremony department are called gongsheng; The palace presided over by the emperor himself is called Jinshi, which is divided into three parts: one is the top three, that is, the champion, the second place, and the flower exploration, commonly known as the third ding Jia or the third Ji; There are more places for dimethyl, and more places for top three. In ancient times, the emperor chose the top scholar, considering not only his talent but also his appearance, and also his surname and name. For example, in the 22nd year of Yongle (1424), palace examination, a Jiachen branch, was the top scholar, and Sun Yuegong was the first scholar. Ming Chengzu felt that the combination of Yue Gong and Yu was unlucky, so he was reduced to the third place and Xing Kuanyi, the third place, was changed to the top scholar. This shows that the top scholar is not necessarily a generation of "man of great talent, who looks like Pan An", but the third one is a person with real talent and practical learning, so the quality of the "three reds" in Xiamen cake is particularly good, which means this.
A set of ***63 cakes is based on "three more than nine", and three and nine are the auspicious numbers of our people.
"Bo Cake", which originated in Xiamen, has been popular in Taiwan Province for more than 300 years with Zheng's successful recovery of Taiwan Province.
Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, Jiangnan is also called August Festival. The origin and prosperity of August Festival are related to Nanjing.
As the season of the New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival came into being late, but playing with the moon has a long history. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, "playing with the moon in Niuzhu" in Nanjing was the most influential story so far, and even evolved into the Mid-Autumn Festival that the broad masses of the people enjoyed for thousands of years.
Niuzhu (now Caishiji) belonged to Moling, Danyang County (now Nanjing) in Han Dynasty. "The History of the Continued Han Dynasty, County and Country" says that Moling County has "Niuzhu in the south". As early as 1,600 years ago, the Eastern Jin Dynasty established its capital in Nanjing (then called Jianye), and Xie Shang, who was guarding Niuzhu, went boating on the Niuzhu River on a moonlit night. When he heard that he had satirized his poem "Ode to History" on a charter boat, he was greatly appreciated, so he invited him to cross the boat. This person was Yuan Hong. As soon as they hit it off, they recited poems until dawn. At that time, Xie Shang was a general in Zhenxi, while Yuan Hong was just a poor scholar who made a living by renting. Because of their respect for talents, they broke the status barrier. Yuan Hong was praised by Xie Shang, and became famous from then on. Xie Shang plays with the moon, and Yuan Hong sings about history before him, and scholars follow him, so there are endless boaters and moonwalkers. When Li Bai, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, arrived in Jinling to learn about this, he wrote a poem saying, "I heard about the five chapters of Niu Zhu's swimming in the past, but why thank Yuan Jialang now?" Emotionally, I went to Sun Chu Restaurant in the west of the city to "play with the moon". The Preface to Poems on the Moon written by Ouyang Zhan in the Tang Dynasty also said: "Playing with the ancient moon, thanking Fu and Bao Shi, overlooking the pavilion and in the bright building, all play with the moon." Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty visited the Moon Palace at night, and these are the stories that have been passed down to this day.
August 15th, when the session of Sanqiu, it is called Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Mid-Autumn Festival, the temperature is cool, the sky is crisp, and the moon is in the middle of the sky. In order to play the moon in the best season, people love to play the moon at this time, which has gradually evolved into a festival since the Tang Dynasty. This is the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
In Song Dynasty, people ate melons, fruits and round cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival night, which was the beginning of moon cakes. Su Dongpo has a poem "Cookies are like chewing the moon". On the Mid-Autumn Festival night in the Southern Song Dynasty, Jiankang (now Nanjing) and Lin 'an (now Hangzhou) competed to put water lanterns, and candles shook the moonlight, which was especially spectacular (later, Nanjing moved the water lanterns to July 15th, which was called "Zhongyuan Water Lantern").
In the first year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (AD 1368), Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor in Yingtianfu (now Nanjing). On the second day of August, Xu Da captured the Yuan Dynasty, and the news came that Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he hurriedly handed down a message to let all the soldiers have fun with the people in the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, and gave the "moon cakes" that were sent in secret when he started fighting that year as seasonal cakes to his ministers. Since then, the production of "moon cakes" has become more and more elaborate, with more varieties, such as discs, and has become a good gift. On this night in Nanjing, people painted the moon palace, displayed fresh fruits and moon cakes, lit incense, told stories about "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon", "Wu Gang cut laurel" and "Jade Rabbit tinkered with medicine", and competed to put water lanterns, etc., which was very lively. Since then, the Mid-Autumn Night has been very lively in both the south and the north. Northerners eat moon cakes and fruits on this day and buy male prostitute for their children to play with. "male prostitute", which can be divided into paper painting, cloth binding and clay sculpture, has a rabbit head and colorful clothes. It is very unique to sit or stand, pound a pestle, or ride a beast to raise a flag.
Southerners like to eat moon cakes, fresh lotus roots, cooked water chestnut, persimmons, pomegranates and sugar stalks in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Nanjing people are jathyapple's guests, and they must eat the famous Jinling dish osmanthus duck. "Sweet-scented osmanthus duck" should be in the market when cinnamon is fragrant, fat but not greasy, and delicious. After drinking, you must eat a small piece of sugar taro and pour it with cinnamon pulp. The beauty goes without saying. "Cinnamon pulp" is named after Qu Yuan's "Songs of the South, Less Commandments" and "Helping the North to close its doors and drink cinnamon pulp". Cinnamomum cassia pulp, a sweet osmanthus, was picked around the Mid-Autumn Festival and pickled with sugar and sour plum. Women in the south of the Yangtze River are skillful in turning the chanting in poems into delicacies on the table.
According to the Records of Zhengde Jiangning County, on the Mid-Autumn Festival night, Nanjing people must enjoy the moon, which is called "celebrating reunion" for the family, "full moon" for the group to sit and drink, and "walking on the moon" for the market. In the early Ming Dynasty, there was a Moon-looking Building and a Moon-playing Bridge in Nanjing. In the Qing Dynasty, a Moon-watching Building was built under Lion Mountain, all of which were for people to enjoy the moon, and those who played the Moon-playing Bridge were the most. When the bright moon is hanging high, people go to the moon tower and play the moon bridge together, taking pleasure in seeing the jade rabbit.
Playing Moon Bridge is located in Qinhuai River, Confucius Temple, next to the famous prostitute Ma Xianglan's mansion. On this night, scholars gathered at the bridge to play flute and sing, reminiscing about Niuzhu's playing with the moon and writing poems to the moon, so it was called Playing Moon Bridge. After the death of the Ming Dynasty, it gradually declined, and later generations had a poem: "The romantic southern song has been sold out, leaving the west wind with a long slab bridge, but I remember sitting on the Jade Man Bridge and teaching the flute in the moonlight." Long Banqiao, the original Moon Bridge.
After the Republic of China, Nanjing was the seat of the central government of the Kuomintang, and the society developed abnormally. In front of the Confucius Temple, there were feasts. On August 15th, Fu Jia, an official, went boating beside Qinhuai to play with the moon, and thousands of families were miserable. At that time, there was a popular song: "August 15th is the Mid-Autumn Festival, some people are happy and some people are sad, some people play flute upstairs, and some people frown downstairs." In addition, at this time, there are many old traces and river water pollution, so there are not many tourists involved.
In recent years, the Confucius Temple in Nanjing has been renovated, restored some pavilions in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and dredged rivers. Until the Mid-Autumn Festival, you can enjoy the fun of playing the moon together.
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