The full moon, moon cake, Chang'e, jade rabbit and other elements are related to the Mid-Autumn Festival, when you see these elements frequently appear in the media and television, it means that the annual Mid-Autumn Festival is coming, and the allusions to these elements are familiar to everyone.
First of all, Chang'e running to the moon, this myth and legend have many versions, the most popular is still inclined to Chang'e is Houyi's wife, because Houyi shoots the sun, the Queen Mother gave Houyi two immortal medicines, eating can be feathered into immortals, so Houyi took home to let Chang'e save, to solve the survival worries of the people of Li, after taking this medicine, Houyi's apprentice was called Qimeng, learned that Chang'e has immortal medicine, so she took advantage of Houyi's absence to force Chang'e to take out the immortal medicine, Chang'e thought that such a bad person could not get the immortal medicine, So he swallowed two pills himself, after eating, Chang'e slowly flew up, all the way to the Moon Palace, there is a rabbit in the Moon Palace, Chang'e and the jade rabbit as a companion, living in the Moon's Guanghan Palace, and the people in order to thank Chang'e for her merits, every year on August 15th full moon will be sacrificed as a memorial.
In fact, the story of Chang'e Running Moon is earlier than the time when the Jade Rabbit appeared, Chang'e Running Moon In the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, Qin Jian's "Gui Zang" in the "Gui Sister" gua words are: In the past, Heng I (姮娥) stole the medicine of death from the Queen Mother of the West and took it (Ben) Moon. Will go, and the piece occupies the yellow. There is Huang Zhanzhi: "Ji." Fly back to the sister, will go west alone. Every day is obscure, do not be frightened, and then dachang". Heng I was entrusted to the moon, for the toad. In the vernacular to express that there was a person named Chang'e in ancient times, she stole the immortal medicine of the Queen Mother of the West, and after taking it, she floated to the moon, if the divination was yellow, it was an auspicious omen, going west alone, encountering the weather darkening, do not be frightened, what is coming is prosperity, and Chang'e arrived at the Moon Palace and became a toad.
Therefore, not only did Chang'e appear earlier than the jade rabbit, but the toad also appeared earlier than the jade rabbit, and the first appearance of the jade rabbit was in Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Question".
The earliest image of the jade rabbit was a tiger
"Heaven Asks": "Luminous Ho Tak, dead and nurturing?" Julius Weihe, while Gu Suo was in the abdomen. Although the 菟 here is also the pronunciation of rabbit, it is not actually a rabbit, Qu Yuan is a Chu person, in the Chu country, 菟 is another name for the tiger, "Ci Hai": "Yu Su, another name for the tiger".
The famous statesman of the Chu state, Ling Yin Ziwen, was an illegitimate son, was abandoned in the place of Yun Mengze, and was raised by a tigress, whose name was Gu Yu (ɡòu wū tú), which means "tiger caressing", so many places in Bashu were used for 菟 as a place name, which stemmed from the Chu people's worship of tigers, and many gods and immortals were also called tiger gods, after Chang'e Ranyue, the Chu people called Chang'e Yu Su, which means the meaning of the gods, and the equatorial numbers of 菟 and rabbits were used by the Jin Dynasty scholar Wang Yi, Wang Yi's "Chu Ci Zhang Sentence" It is a commentary on Qu Yuan's "Chu Ci", after he looked at the Chu people, he did not think of this custom of the Chu people, but was equivalent to the rabbit, and regarded 菟 as a tongkan character, and yu was also a polysyllabic character, also pronounced yu, so Yu Suo was equated with the jade rabbit.
There is a jade rabbit on the moon, which is actually a beautiful misunderstanding, but this does not prevent people from loving the jade rabbit.
Why does Jade Rabbit always pound medicine?
The current jade rabbit always appears in the image of a medicine, so why does the jade rabbit pound medicine in the Moon Palace? What kind of medicine is it?
In fact, before the Eastern Han Dynasty, the jade rabbit always appeared in a running form, but after the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, alchemy was popular in society, and many dignitaries and dignitaries were obsessed with refining elixirs, this custom was popular until the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Chang'e was taking immortal medicine to run to the moon, then the rabbit around Chang'e naturally became a good helper for people to express their good wishes, so the image of the jade rabbit that pounded medicine appeared, and the jade rabbit pounded medicine, and the medicine was also pounded.
This image was also accepted by the Ming Dynasty, and in the Journey to the West, the jade rabbit essence's medicine pestle became a very powerful weapon, adding a lot of trouble to the Tang monks and apprentices.
The ancients' love and worship of the jade rabbit also stemmed from the fertility worship at that time, when the conditions were harsh, there were few children who could survive and grow up, so at that time, the ancients were required to have more children, and the rabbit was more than a dozen in life, which was obviously what the ancients hoped, and the love for the jade rabbit was the worship of reproduction.
With the progress of society, the jade rabbit gradually separated from the image of fertility worship, the image of the jade rabbit is also more and more liked by people, due to the relationship between Chang'e and the moon and the jade rabbit, the naming of China's lunar exploration project is also related to these elements, such as the name of China's lunar rover is called Yutu, the lunar exploration project is called Chang'e project, which shows the Chinese's yearning for the moon and the determination to achieve the goal.