August 15th of the lunar calendar is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival is also called "the right month". In the Tang Dynasty, Mid-Autumn Festival was also called "the first month". The prevalence of Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Song Dynasty, and it became one of the major festivals in China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Mid-Autumn Festival, a festival about the moon. On this day, the custom of China people is to reunite with their families, eat moon cakes and enjoy the moon together. "When a person is unfamiliar in a foreign land, he misses his relatives every holiday."

Folk stories about Mid-Autumn Festival include: the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, Jade Rabbit entering the Moon Palace, drinking alone with the Moon, Xuanzong story, Jade Rabbit smashing medicine, WU GANG laurel, Zhu Yuanzhang moon cake uprising and so on. I think there are five folk stories worth mentioning in Mid-Autumn Festival. Let's take a look:

One of the Folk Stories of Mid-Autumn Festival: Jade Rabbit Filling Medicine

This also comes from a folklore about Hou Yi and Chang 'e, who were originally sent from heaven to earth. Because Chang 'e didn't want to live a lonely human life for a long time, she stole the elixir, ran to the moon and became a jade rabbit, and was punished for pounding the elixir all day. Day after day, year after year, she lost her former freedom and was very lonely. Li Shangyin, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once lamented: "Chang 'e should regret stealing the elixir and stay up all night. "Jade Rabbit is Chang 'e, but why did Jade Rabbit become Chang 'e?

According to textual research, "Jade Rabbit" originated from "Yu Tu" and "Yu Tu" is a dialect of ancient Chu, which is called "Tiger". Some ethnic groups in ancient Bachu area worshipped tigers. They not only call themselves tigers, but also like to name mountains, place names and water names after tigers. They even called almost all the gods "Tiger God", "Moon God" or "Yu Tu" in the local language.

After the goddess the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon became the moon god, she naturally became the "tiger god" in the eyes of tiger worshippers in Bachu. Chang 'e is naturally "Yu Tu". Interpreting "rabbit" as "rabbit" is a mistake made by Wang Yi, a scholar in Jin Dynasty, when commenting on Qu Yuan's Tian Wen. Later generations used this wrong interpretation to replace "rabbit" with "rabbit". Because "Jade" is similar to "Jade", the name "Yu Tu" was named "Jade Rabbit" by later generations. It can be seen that the Jade Rabbit is the Moon God Chang 'e.

The second folk story of Mid-Autumn Festival: Jade Rabbit Entering the Moon Palace

Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a pair of rabbits who practiced for thousands of years and became immortals. They have four lovely daughters, all pure white and well-behaved. One day, the Jade Emperor summoned the male rabbit to the Heavenly Palace. He reluctantly left his wife and children and went through the clouds to the Heavenly Palace. Just as it came to the worse heaven, it saw the Taibai Venus leading the heavenly soldiers to walk away with Chang 'e. The Rabbit Fairy didn't know what had happened, so she asked a nearby god who guarded the worse heaven. When Rabbit Fairy heard about her experience, she felt that Chang 'e had suffered innocently and sympathized with her. But my strength is meager. What can I do to help? Think of how lonely and sad Chang 'e is alone in the moon palace. If only there were company, suddenly she remembered her four daughters, so she flew home at once.

Rabbit fairy told the mother rabbit about Chang 'e and said that she would send a child to accompany Chang 'e. Although the mother rabbit deeply sympathizes with Chang 'e, she is reluctant to part with her precious daughter, which is equivalent to cutting off the meat in her heart! Several daughters are reluctant to leave their parents, and they are all in tears. The male rabbit said seriously, "If I am locked up alone, will you accompany me?" Chang 'e was tied up to save the people. Can we not sympathize with her? Son, we can't just think about ourselves! "The children understood their father's heart and expressed their willingness to go. The male rabbit and the female rabbit laughed with tears in their eyes. They decided to let their youngest daughter leave. Xiaoyutu bid farewell to her parents and sisters and flew to the Moon Palace to live with Chang 'e!

The third folk story of Mid-Autumn Festival: WU GANG cut laurel

Legend has it that WU GANG, a heartless general in heaven, was deeply attracted by Chang 'e's beauty and ran to the Moon Palace again and again despite the rejection of the other side. Unable to bear it, Chang 'e pointed to the laurel tree in the middle of the month and said, Its branches are too long. If you can cut it off tonight, you will agree to your pursuit. WU GANG be elated, thinking this is a difficult problem, he swung his axe and cut it. But every time the axe is pulled out, the trunk of the osmanthus tree will recover. So he chopped one axe after another, and the osmanthus tree continued. One to this day. ?

There is also a legend that WU GANG is a mortal: Wu Minggang, a native of Xihe, was originally a woodcutter, obsessed with fairy tales, but refused to concentrate on reading. So the Emperor of Heaven was furious and stayed in the Moon Palace, making him cut down a osmanthus tree 500 feet high in the Moon Palace, and said, "If you cut down the osmanthus tree, you will get magical powers." But every time WU GANG cuts an axe, it rises, and the tree injury will be cured immediately. Day after day, Wu Gang's desire to cut Guangxi has not been realized.

Legend has it that there are laurel trees in the moon, and Huainanzi once said that "there are laurel trees in the moon". Later, the legend was more specific, and WU GANG, a laurel cutter, was added beside the laurel tree. The legend of WU GANG, a laurel tree in the middle of the month, is the most concrete legend of WU GANG, a laurel tree in the middle of the month, which was recorded in the first volume of Tianzhi before Youyang Za in the Tang Dynasty. It says, "As the old saying goes, there are laurel trees and toads in the moon, so different books say that laurel trees are 500 feet high, and one person often digs them and makes them." Wu Minggang, a native of Xihe, studied under the immortal and ordered to cut down trees. "It means that WU GANG once followed the fairy to heaven, but he made a mistake, so the fairy sent him to the moon and ordered him to cut down the fairy tree-laurel. The laurel tree is 500 feet high and can be cut down together. Emperor Yan used this endless labor as a punishment for WU GANG. In Li Bai's poem, there is a paragraph that says, "If you want to be in the middle of the month, you should pay for the cold. "

The Fourth Folk Story of Mid-Autumn Festival: The Story of Yue Bai and Diexin

The story of Dixin is a song by Stuart Wang Yun in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. She is very beautiful. She looks very beautiful. Seeing that the Eastern Han Dynasty was manipulated by treacherous court official Dong Zhuo and burned incense and prayed under the moon, I was worried about my master. Wang Yun saw that Dong Zhuo was going to usurp the Eastern Han Dynasty and set up a series of stratagems. Wang Yunxian secretly promised Lu Bu the story of Diusim and dedicated it to Dong Zhuo of the Ming Dynasty. Lyu3 bu4 hero boy, Dong Zhuo cunning. In order to win over Lu Bu, Dong Zhuo accepted Lu Bu as his adopted son. Both of them are lecherous. From then on, the story of Diusim moved between them, winking at Lu Bu and rewarding Dong Zhuo's charm. The two of them were fascinated.

After listening to Dong Zhuo's story, Lu Bu was dissatisfied with her throwing her into the house. One day, Lu Bu took Dong Zhuo to court, visited the Story of Diusim in Dong Zhuo's mansion, and invited Feng Yiting to meet him. The story of Diusim met Lu Bu, who pretended to cry and said that he was occupied by Dong Zhuo. Lu Bu was very angry. At this time, Dong Zhuo ran into him when he returned to the office. In a rage, he grabbed Lu Bu's square painting halberd and stabbed it. Lu Bu flew away. After that, the two men were suspicious of each other, and Wang Yun persuaded Lu Bu to eradicate Dong Zhuo.

Legend has it that the story of Diesim was born. In three years, the local peach blossom and apricot blossom bloomed and withered. At midnight in Yue Bai, the story of Diusim, Chang 'e was ashamed in the moon and hurried into the clouds; Story Diesim has a beautiful figure, blue ears, swaying willows when walking, and more elegant when quiet. The story of diusim is very wonderful. It is precisely because of this beauty that Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, who are domineering over power, turned against each other and made the turbulent ruling and opposition parties feel a little peace.

The fifth folk story of Mid-Autumn Festival: Zhu Yuanzhang's moon cake uprising

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the people in the Central Plains could not bear the cruel rule. Patriots rose up in succession, and heroes from all walks of life led by Zhu Yuanzhang fought against the imperial court together. However, at that time, the court search was very strict, and it was inconvenient for the insurgents to send messages to each other. At this time, Liu Bowen, the strategist of Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with a clever plan, asking his men to hide a note with the words "Kill the Tartars on August 15th" in the cake, and then send someone to the insurgents all over the country to inform them of the uprising on August 15th. Sure enough, all the insurgents responded together on the day of the uprising. Soon, the insurgents occupied the city and the uprising was successful.

In addition, there is a legend that Liu Bowen ordered his men to dress up as Taoist priests to sell symbols in various counties, and said: There will be a great disaster this year, and those who want to avoid it can hang the sun and moon flag on August 15th, and the flag is hidden in the pie. On this day, the people of the whole country cut up the pie and hung up the flags hidden inside. The flags of the sun and the moon floated in every household. The uprising was huge and Yuan people were very shocked.

Zhu Yuanzhang successfully entered the army and the Yuan Dynasty was successfully overthrown. Later, this sun and moon flag was the "Ming" flag. When the news of victory reached Zhu Yuanzhang's ears, he was so happy that he immediately ordered that all the soldiers and civilians should have fun together on this day every year. The cakes that played an important role in the success of the uprising should be given to ministers as cakes and named "moon cakes".

Since then, the custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival has spread among the people, and people have become more elaborate and varied in the process of making moon cakes, and even become a good gift for relatives and friends.

The folk stories of Mid-Autumn Festival are different in the north and the south, but they are basically the same in one thing, that is, family reunion, visiting relatives and friends, visiting elders and so on. I hope we can keep these customs and origins full of affection and good wishes in mind and pass them on from generation to generation.