2. There is a saying that moon cakes were originally called Hu cakes, which were introduced to the Central Plains from the Western Regions and brought back by Zhang Qian in the Han Dynasty. The local people make a round cake with walnuts, which is called Hu cake. Another way of saying this is that during the reign of Tang Gaozu, Li Jing led the army to conquer the Turks and returned home in triumph, so Tang Gaozu held a banquet to celebrate on August 15. A Turpan businessman presented the emperor with a special product of their hometown: round cakes with stuffing in the middle. Tang Gaozu felt a bit like the bright moon in the sky, so he said, "Please treat toad with Hu cake." He also shared the cake with ministers, saying it was delicious. Since then, Hu cakes have spread. On August 15th every year, people will enjoy the moon and eat moon cakes.
3. Later, I watched the moon with Yang Guifei and ate Hu cakes while watching the moon. Tang Xuanzong said: "Hu Bing is a bad name." Yang Guifei looked at the big round moon and said smoothly, "This cake is very similar to the moon in the sky. How about a moon cake? " Tang Xuanzong said, "Very good." Since then, Hu cake has been called moon cake. But these are legends. In the Northern Song Dynasty, moon cakes were popular in the court and also spread to the people. At that time, it was commonly known as "small cake" and "moon group". Later, it evolved into a circle, symbolizing a happy reunion, reflecting people's good wishes for family reunion, and also deeply missing their relatives and friends. The royal family in the Northern Song Dynasty likes to eat a kind of "palace cake" in the Mid-Autumn Festival, commonly known as "small cake" and "moon group". Su Dongpo has a poem: "Small cakes are like chewing the moon, crisp and pleasing."
4. The word "moon cake" has been used in Wu's book Dream in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, moon cakes were diamond-shaped, coexisting with chrysanthemum cakes, plum cakes and five-kernel cakes, and they were "available at any time without missing customers". It can be seen that the moon cakes at that time were not only eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was said that people took advantage of the opportunity of giving moon cakes to carry a note in them, and agreed to take action to drive away Mongolian "Tatars" on the evening of August 15. The description of enjoying the moon and eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival is recorded in Travel Notes of West Lake in Ming Dynasty: "August 15th is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and people get together with moon cakes as their legacy". The custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival gradually spread among the people. At that time, ingenious bakers printed the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon's fairy tales on moon cakes as food art drawings, making moon cakes a necessary food for Mid-Autumn Festival. Moon cakes symbolize reunion and should have started in the Ming Dynasty. If we look at the information about moon cakes and Mid-Autumn Festival folk customs in the Ming Dynasty, we should be able to see the historical track of moon cake reunion: after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the whole family will sit together and share moon cakes and fruits prepared for the moon. Because moon cakes are also round and shared by the whole family, it gradually forms the implication that moon cakes represent family reunion.
In Qing dynasty, there were more records about moon cakes, and the production became more and more elaborate. In the Qing Dynasty, eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival has become a common custom, and the production skills are getting higher and higher. Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty introduced in "Suiyuan Food List": "Crispy moon cakes are filled with pine nuts, walnuts, melon seeds, rock sugar and lard, which are not sweet or fragrant, soft or greasy, which is unusual." According to folklore, Cixi likes eating moon cakes very much. However, because the sounds of "moon cake" and "moon disease" are similar, Cixi is a woman and feels indecent, so she changed her name to "moon vegetable cake". Mid-Autumn Festival, when Cixi was in charge of politics, was a big day, which lasted for three days. August 14 is "Welcome to the Moon", August 15 is "Yue Bai" and August 16 is "Send the Moon". These three days are Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, the moon cakes in Beijing were first made by Qianmen Zhimeizhai. Across the country, five flavor series have been formed, namely, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Guangzhou and Chaozhou. Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, local folk customs such as Yue Bai and enjoying the moon also appeared.