In the representative work of the Beijing school writer Lao She, "Four Generations Together", there is such a passage: "There is no rouge on the face, but a thin line is drawn on the three-petaled small mouth, the red is also oiled, and the two slender ears are also dotted with a faint light red, so that the face of the little rabbit looks very handsome, a bit like the yellow tianba in the rabbit."
This passage is the custom of some children in old Beijing to buy a rabbit grandfather during the Mid-Autumn Festival, until now, every Mid-Autumn Festival, in addition to enjoying the moon and eating moon cakes, old Beijingers will also buy a rabbit grandfather for the children in the family.
In the evening, it will be placed on a small square table, and then placed moon cakes, flowers and other tributes, and children will prostrate to the rabbit grandfather, praying for the peace of the world, the abundance of grain, and the well-being of the family.
It is said that this tradition has a history of more than 400 years, so why do the old Beijingers regard the rabbit grandfather so important? Who is this rabbit grandfather?
Image: Screenshot of Bunny's profile
1. The Jade Rabbit was ordered to go down to the mortal world in danger
1. The plague raged in Beijing
Legend has it that one summer, the plague raged in Beijing, full of sick and dead people, flies flying everywhere, garbage everywhere, almost like a purgatory on earth, Shuntianfu looked around for doctors to stop the spread of the disease, but also powerless to return to heaven, infected people were weak, vomiting and diarrhea, and finally died of physical exhaustion.
And the spread of this disease is very fast, the plague lasted from May to July of that year, there is no intention of stopping, the people can only pin all their hopes on the gods, began to burn incense and worship Buddha in temples large and small, hoping that all the gods and immortals can return to the peace of the world.
At that time, the officials of The Shun Tianfu went to the City God Temple to burn incense, and also burned a "Tongtian Charm" for Nezha, which wrote about the before and after of the plague in the capital.
Photo: Stills of going to the temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha
Nezha is the heavenly general guarding the South Heavenly Gate, after seeing the situation in the human world, he immediately reported it to the Jade Emperor, but the Jade Emperor was resting at this time and could not disturb, many immortals were very worried about this, but they could not offend Long Yan, although the immortals could wait, but the plague in the human world could not wait for anyone, which could make Nezha anxious.
This matter quickly reached the ears of Chang'e of the Guanghan Palace, although she had a compassionate heart, she was in the Immortal Class, and without the will of the Jade Emperor, she could not be privately mortal, so what could she do? Chang'e could not leave her palace, but she had the right to let her jade rabbit go down to mortality, and she also had the right to use the "Osmanthus Divine Pill" refined from the osmanthus tree in the courtyard.
So he said to Yutu, "We usually pound medicine to get rid of diseases in the human world, and now that the plague is prevalent in the capital of the human world, you have a place to use the medicine every day, and now you go to the human world and lift the plague!" ”
Image: Chang'e holding a jade rabbit still
2. The reason behind the plague
Nezha is the Heavenly Master of the Heavenly Garden, and also the deity who is ordered to guard the human Jingshi, and represents the duty of the City God Temple and the Lord of the Rope Industry, because the place where the Jingshi is located was originally the bitter sea of Youzhou, and there is a Youhai Evil Dragon that has been trying to prevent people from casting the city, and finally Liu Bowen, Yao Guangxiao and others used the portrait of the eight-armed Nezha to design the Jingshi and suppress the evil dragon.
Although the city of Beijing was built, the evil dragon had many sons of his own, and he would still bring some disasters to the world on weekdays, such as floods, earthquakes, fires, and so on. It is said that this plague is that the evil dragon sent a pot of wine to the Jade Emperor in advance, causing the Jade Emperor to fall asleep, so that no one can take care of himself and can wantonly wreak havoc in the capital.
Fortunately, the jade rabbit was not a god of the immortal class, it left the Guanghan Palace with the medicine pot, and was shouted by Nezha when passing through the South Heavenly Gate, the jade rabbit explained the meaning of Chang'e, Nezha pondered for a moment and said: "It is a good thing that you go down to the human world to control the plague, but you can't go down naked, right?" ”
So Nezha took the position of chief of the imperial seal for thirty-six days, bought the jade rabbit a heavenly general's uniform, marshal, and boots, and found a tiger as a mount for it, so that the jade rabbit fell to the human world, which was the "Long Life Festival", that is, the birthday of the Qianlong Emperor.
Image: Screenshot of jade rabbit data wearing a heavenly general suit
Second, another legend of the rabbit grandfather
1. The rabbit god apparitions
At that time, the Qing Dynasty had three festivals that were more important, namely the Spring Festival, the Winter Solstice and the "Longevity Festival" of the Emperor's birthday, when the Qianlong Emperor was born on the thirteenth day of August in the fiftieth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty, according to the ancients' calculation of the eight characters of the Heavenly Stem and Earth Branch, the Qianlong Emperor's zodiac sign happened to be a rabbit.
His birthday celebration is three days, the climax is exactly August 15, when the Qianlong Emperor has been the emperor for sixty years and the Emperor Taishang for three years, so the old Beijingers call the Mid-Autumn Festival "August Festival", and among the flag people, there is also a legend related to the rabbit.
Among the white flags stationed in the Beijing Division, all the leaders were performing a great gift to the Qianlong Emperor in the Kuixing Tower of the Moonlight Hutong, when they suddenly saw a big-eared general dressed in red robes descending from the sky, and there was even a fierce tiger riding under his crotch.
At that time, all the generals were stunned, only to see that when General Big Ear fell to the East Fourth Arch, he disappeared at once, and everyone speculated that he had gone to Longfu Temple.
Photo: Stills of the Great Gift to the Qianlong Emperor's Tablet
2. The unique Mid-Autumn Festival "scenery" of old Beijing
Everyone rushed to the temple, some people also said that General Big Ear went to the Guandi Temple, but there was no trace, just at this time, the well around suddenly wafted out a strong aroma of osmanthus flowers, there was a medicine shop to fetch water for patients infected with the plague, the latter suddenly felt refreshed, and then the disease was completely gone.
This matter soon spread throughout the city of Beijing, and everyone went to the well next to longfu temple and guandi temple to fetch water to drink, and people thought of the previous general with big ears, so they speculated that this was the jade rabbit in the sky, who came to the human world with osmanthus immortal medicine to drive away the plague.
Some people say that after the jade rabbit went down to the mortal world, she became a beautiful woman, and every time she went to a family to deliver medicine, she would change into another look, and finally after seeing the plague in the capital disappear, the prototype appeared.
It is said that at that time, there were two Manchus who were on duty at the Taimiao Temple, and they used the best loess clay in the temple to make the earliest "rabbit grandfather", and then took it to the market to sell, and the result was an overnight hit, which was very popular among the old Beijingers, and even spread to the palace.
Image: Stills of Grandpa Rabbit peddling
Later, in the suburbs of Beijing, some people began to burn rabbit grandpa on a large scale, up to the official government, down to the people are very recognized, which is an important reason why rabbit grandpa is popular in Beijing. In fact, this is also a kind of yearning for a better life and a kind of spiritual sustenance of the ancient people, which is similar to the folk customs of many places.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!