Tip: In the land of China today, the ethnic groups are not only geographically close, linguistically similar, and homogeneous, but also a collection of some ethnic groups with the same cultural origin, so they are called the Chinese nation. The Mid-Autumn Festival seems to be able to change some of people's views on history.
1. Hu people and Hu cakes and the Mid-Autumn Festival
Why do Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival? At the end of the day, there are only two words: reunion. These two words are the same for the family and the country, and everyone should not be separated for too long and reunited. It's even more true for the nation.
In ancient Chinese classics, there are dozens of words used to express similar concepts to the concept of "nation", including "people", "species", "tribe", "class" and other monophonic words, as well as "people", "race people", "people", "people" The Emergence of the Word "Nation" in Chinese and Its Initial Use, Ethnographic Studies, 1984).
Ethnic groups in ethnology refer to the collection of some ethnic groups that are geographically close, linguistically similar, homologous, and culturally homologous, also known as ethnic groups. Clans, also known as "clan communes", are human social groups in primitive societies that are united by blood relations in order to survive, divided into matrilineal clans and patrilineal clans. By clarifying these three concepts, it is possible to make it clearer why Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Let's first look at the origin of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Qing Dynasty Zhang Ying and Wang Shizhen's "Yuanjian Class Letter" volume 20 quotes the "Records of Emperor Taizong of Tang" as saying: "August 15 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the three dukes below offer mirrors and full of exposed bags. Through this record, it is not difficult to see that the Mid-Autumn Festival has formed a rudimentary form during the Zhenguan period. There is also a legend about it, that is, in the early Tang Dynasty, when Emperor Taizong of Tang was Li Shimin, Li Jing commanded the army to conquer the Turks and returned to the division victoriously, which coincided with the fifteenth of August. In the capital Chang'an, there was a Tubo man who was engaged in business, and in order to please Li Shimin, Jin offered a large number of cakes and foods to congratulate the Tang army on its great victory. Li Shimin looked up at the moon and said casually, "You should invite The Hu Cake to mingyue." "Then he gave this bread to the heavy ministers and soldiers, and there was a Mid-Autumn Festival to eat bread. That is to say, Tang Taizong set August 15 as the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is more or less related to the food of "Hu Cake".
So, what is a mustache? In our words today, it is the bread made by the Hu people. Historically, the Hu people originally referred to ethnic groups other than The Han Chinese (Han Chinese), and later, they were used as a generic term for "foreigners" in the north and west. That is to say, those Xiongnu, Xianbei, Turkic, Mongol, Khitan and so on that appear in ancient books can all be called "Hu people".
In real life, people sometimes behave with humor, such as Hu Ren. Today, we play the huqin, use pepper, eat flax and carrots, courgettes, sleep on a mustache bed, wear a beard (such as pants), etc., all of which are good, but they are not very good when it comes to people - the word "Hu ren" has been given some meanings that should not be given in the course of historical development. However, "Hu" was originally the self-designation of the northern nomadic Xiongnu during the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the so-called self-proclaimed xiongnu did not have a bad meaning, and no one would use "bad" to call itself. Therefore, we conclude that "Hu" certainly means "good" in the first place.
Therefore, in the beginning, whether it is a Hu cake or a Hu person, there is no ambiguity, it is "good". And the hu cake comes from today's northwest China, there is a historical basis, and its title or name must be earlier than the Tang Dynasty. The Book of Continuation of the Han Dynasty says: "The Ling Emperor is good at Hu Cake, and the Beijing Masters all eat Hu Cake." It can be seen that Hu Cake was already quite "favored" in the Han Dynasty, and before this, the name of Hu Cake already existed. Some people say that the so-called Hu Cake is actually similar to Xinjiang's bread, we believe that no matter what it looks like, how big or how small, its ingredients must be noodles, and today's archaeology has confirmed that wheat was introduced to the Central Plains through the southern Xinjiang and Gansu Hexi Corridor. This confirms our claim that the pepper must be a cake made by the Hu people.
2. Hu ren, hu cake and Mid-Autumn Festival
However, why is hu cake related to the Mid-Autumn Festival? The answer given by the literature is: "Mid-Autumn Festival", which was first seen in the "Zhou Li", which said: "The mid-autumn moon nourishes the aging and practices a porridge diet." That is to say, the "Mid-Autumn Festival" originated from the sacrifice activities of ancient emperors. The Book of Rites records: "Tianzi Spring Dynasty, Autumn Sunset Moon", the Sunset Moon is the moon sacrifice, indicating that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the emperor has begun to sacrifice the moon and worship the moon, but at that time people did not regard it as a festival. However, when talking about the culture of the Central Plains, we must not forget the culture of the ethnic minorities on the frontier, and it is said in the "Chronicle of the Xiongnu" that the Xiongnu "went out of the camp alone, worshiped the beginning of the sun, and worshiped the moon at night." "It seems that the ethnic minorities in the frontier also have the habit of worshipping the moon and worshipping the moon.
Of course, the Xiongnu who worshiped the moon and worshiped the moon were only a kind of inheritance, and the peoples before and after them had this habit, such as the Yue clan, a nation earlier than the Xiongnu. In the past, people read it meat, but in recent years it has finally been changed and began to read yue. It is said that the customs of this ethnic group are the same as those of the Xiongnu, and they also worship the moon and worship the moon. The Xianbei, Turkic, Mongol, Khitan and other ethnic groups after the Xiongnu also had this habit.
Here, it seems that we can return to the "ethnic groups" mentioned above, and it is clear that in the land of today's China, the various ethnic groups are not only geographically close, linguistically similar, and homologous, but also a collection of some ethnic groups with the same cultural origin, so they are called the Chinese nation. The Mid-Autumn Festival seems to be able to change many people's views on history.
Some people say that the origin of the agricultural production is related. Autumn is the season of harvest. The word "autumn" is interpreted as follows: "The crops are ripe for autumn." In august, in the mid-autumn festival, crops and various fruits are ripening, and farmers take the day of "Mid-Autumn Festival" as a festival in order to celebrate the harvest and express their joy. "Mid-Autumn Festival" means the middle of autumn, the eighth month of the lunar calendar is a month in the middle of autumn, and the fifteenth day is a day in the middle of this month, so the Mid-Autumn Festival may be a custom inherited from the ancients "Autumn News" (referring to the ancient autumn sacrifice sheji, in order to repay the gods; also refers to the reward obtained in autumn).
In the customs of northern ethnic minorities such as the Xiongnu, although the "Mid-Autumn Festival" has nothing to do with agriculture, they still carry out activities related to nomadism. According to the Chronicle of the Huns, every autumn, when the horses were fat, the Huns all had large gatherings in the forest to assess and count the number of people and livestock. In the middle, there is also the meaning of "autumn newspaper". Moreover, the "trust" of the Huns in the moon may be greater than that of the Central Plains. Its "wait for the stars and the moon, the moon is strong and strong, and the moon is weak and retreats", which means: when they are ready to fight, they must first observe the stars and the moon, and if the moon is perfect, they will attack, and if the moon is lacking, they will retreat.
In the past, both the Central Plains people and ethnic minorities had the habit of worshipping the moon, but the border minorities did not regard it as a festival.
Third, tribes more distant than the Hu people
There is such a myth and legend about the Mid-Autumn Festival:
In ancient times, ten days in the heavens appeared at the same time, the crops dried up, the people did not have a good life, a hero named Houyi, with infinite strength, he sympathized with the suffering people, pulled the bow of god, shot down more than nine suns in one breath, and strictly ordered the last sun to rise and fall on time for the benefit of the people. Houyi's wife's name was Chang'e. In addition to passing on the art of hunting, Hou Yi spent all day with his wife. Many volunteers came to learn the art, and PengMeng, who had an unhealthy heart, also mixed in.
One day, Hou Yi went to Kunlun Mountain to visit a friend and asked the Queen Mother for a bag of immortal medicine. It is said that if you take this medicine, you can immediately ascend to heaven and become an immortal. However, Hou Yi was reluctant to leave his wife and temporarily handed over the immortal medicine to Chang'e to treasure. Chang'e hid the medicine in the treasure chest on the dresser. Three days later, Hou Yi led the disciples out hunting, and Pengmeng, who was pregnant with a ghost fetus, pretended to be ill and did not go out. Shortly after Hou Yi led the crowd away, Peng Meng broke into the backyard of the inner mansion with a sword and threatened Chang'e to hand over the immortal medicine. Chang'e knew that she was not Pengmeng's opponent, and when she was in danger, she turned around and opened the treasure box, took out the immortal medicine and swallowed it. Chang'e swallowed the medicine, and her body immediately drifted off the ground, rushed out of the window, and flew into the sky. Because Chang'e was worried about her husband, she flew down to the moon closest to the human world and became a fairy.
In the evening, Houyi returned home, and the maids cried about what had happened during the day. Hou Yi was both shocked and angry, drawing his sword to kill the evildoers, Peng Meng had already fled, Hou Yi was so angry that he beat his chest and was grief-stricken, looking up at the night sky and calling for Chang'e, at this time he found that today's moon was exceptionally bright and bright, and there was a shaking figure that resembled Chang'e. Hou Yi missed his wife, so he sent someone to Chang'e's favorite back garden, placed incense cases, put on the honey fresh fruits that Chang'e usually liked to eat, and offered sacrifices to Chang'e in the Moon Palace. After the people heard the news that Chang'e had become an immortal in the moon, they set up incense cases under the moon and prayed to the kind Chang'e for good luck and peace. Since then, the custom of worshipping the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival has spread in the folk.
This legend is a household name. We find two key words in it: Kunlun Mountain and queen mother. Kunlun Mountain is a mountain in northwest China, and the Queen Mother is the myth and legend of the Queen Mother of Lixi, the daughter country or the leader of the matriarchal society in Chinese myths and legends. Why did Houyi go to her? In previous articles, we have done some analysis and explanation, that is, in the distant ancient times, there may have been two tribes on the land of China, the sun tribe and the moon tribe, the sun tribe in the southeast, and the moon tribe in the northwest.
After the eclipse of the sun may be because of the civil unrest in the Sun Tribe, ask the people of the Moon Tribe to help. He took Chang'e with him, successfully shot the sun or quelled the civil unrest of the Sun Tribe, and he did not want to go back, so he went to ask the Queen Mother, the leader of the Moon Tribe. But before he could return, the Sun Tribe was in chaos again, so Chang'e could only defect to his original tribe, the Moon Tribe of the Queen Mother of the West.
Legends can be interpreted, and it can even make up for the lack of historical data. For example, in our historical data, the earliest Ethnic Minorities in the Northwest were the Qiang and Yueshi people, but before that? Man cannot have fallen from heaven, and the myth of the Queen Mother of the West should be part of our history.
The Queen Mother of the West is a ancestor widely revered by the Han people, and according to the Hai Nei Xi Jing, Kunlun Mountain is her residence. The Kunlun Mountains are located in the territory of present-day Xinjiang, Tibet, and Qinghai, which shows that in ancient times, this region had exchanges with the Central Plains, and the worship of the moon in the Chinese may have begun from this moon tribe - the era of the existence of the ancient tribe of the Western Queen Mother, from the earliest myths and legends, roughly in the era of the "Five Emperors".
The question arises here: Why are the ethnic minorities who have historically appeared in this area and even in northern China regarded by some as "foreigners"? Let's ask the historians to answer.
Xiongnu, "History": Xiongnu, its ancestor Xia Hou clan of miao descendants also, known as Chun Wei.
Xianbei, "History of Suoyin" quotes the Eastern Han Dynasty should be offered to the Han Huan Emperor Shuyun: "Qin built the Great Wall, and the soldiers of the apprentices died outside the sai, according to the Xianbei Mountain, they were called by the name." ”
Khitan , the Northern Zhou Dynasty "Book of Zhou" said "after the Benyan Emperor"; the late Liao Tianzuo Emperor Shiguan Yelü Shu "Imperial Records", then called him the Yellow Emperor. When the Yuan Dynasty revised the "History of Liao", the "Book of Zhou" came out first, but it was taken from it, so the "History of Liao" said: "The first of the Liao, from the Yan Emperor." ”
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These statements all prove that the Chinese civilization is pluralistic and integrated, and the Chinese nation is also a homologous ethnic concept. Under this moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, these things can be said to be justified and established.
Some people say that the Xia people, merchants, Zhou people, and Qin people, although the academic circles generally refer to them as "nationalities", are not strictly speaking what we now call "nationalities". More precisely, they are a political body, some people who control under the regime, but these people are not single. The Xia people may be relatively closer to what we call "ethnic groups" because of their relatively single origin (Yan and Huang tribes), while the Zhou people (the main body is Xi Rong) are more complex, covering the Xia people and merchants (Northern Di), which are three different sources. The title of the Qin people includes at least the people of the Seven Kingdoms, which are more complicated and less pure, and are not what we call "nationalities". What we still emphasize is the concept of a big nation and a big ethnic group, because since the beginning of mankind, the exchange between ethnic groups has never stopped, and it is precisely because of the existence of this never-ending exchange that it has effectively promoted the integration of nationalities from ancient times to the present.
Fourth, the significance of the Mid-Autumn Festival
In any case, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival that really became lively until the Song Dynasty.
Wu Zimu's "Record of Dreams" records: "Wang Sun Gongzi, rich family giant room, Mo Bu Deng Dangerous Building, Linxuan Play moon, or Kai Guang Xie, tortoiseshell feast list, Qin Ser sonorous, drink wine and sing, to bu jing xi rejoice." To the home of the pavement, also climb the small platform, arrange family banquets, group children, in order to reward the festival. Although the poor people in the ugly alleys, undress the city wine, reluctantly welcome, refuse to waste. This night the street sells and buys until the five drums, playing with the moon tourists, and the city is endless. Gai Jinwu couldn't help but die also. ”
Meaning: the powerful and rich people will climb their own high-rise buildings on this day to admire the moon and hold banquets, while the middle level of society will climb the small platform to admire the moon and hold banquets, and the bottom of society will also sell clothes and use the money to buy wine to celebrate the festival, and on this day the government will also allow people to celebrate all night, and will not carry out night bans.
Of course, at that time, people already called hu cakes mooncakes. It is said that Yang Yuhuan did this: one year on August 15, when Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei were enjoying the moon together, they ate pepper cakes while watching the moon. Tang Xuanzong said, "The name Hu Cake is not good. Yang Guifei looked at the big and round moon and said smoothly, "This cake is very similar to the moon in the sky, how about calling it a moon cake?" Tang Xuanzong said, "Good. Since then, the beard cake has been renamed moon cake.
It cannot be said that the transition from hu cake to moon cake is a kind of progress, but it is certain that the Mid-Autumn Festival has become more colorful and has cultural connotations at this time, so that today's Mid-Autumn Festival is reunited with the full moon, in order to miss the hometown, miss the love of relatives, pray for a good harvest and happiness, and become a colorful and precious cultural heritage. And what we want to say in the end is that those divisions and combinations in history, today, under the big concept of the Chinese nation, have finally been realized by us - this is the meaning of the Mid-Autumn Festival - raise a glass to the moon, we are in the moonlight, there is no longer a Hu people Hu cake - no matter which ethnic group, we are all gathered, we are reunited - this is also the wish of all of us for five thousand years. (Wen | Lusheng)