Among the traditional festivals in China, the most folk color is the Mid-Autumn Festival. The name "Mid-Autumn Festival", although some people go back to the "Zhou Li", but the "Mid-Autumn Festival" mentioned in the "Zhou Li Xia Guan" does not have the meaning of a festival, but only the concept of seasonal timing. The ancients divided the four seasons of the year into Meng, Zhong, and seasonal orders, and the fifteenth day of August in the summer calendar, and the order belonged to mid-autumn, so there was a mid-autumn saying.
The Mid-Autumn Festival in China is formed relatively late in the traditional festivals of China, the Two Han Dynasties and the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there is no Mid-Autumn Festival, although the Tang Dynasty has a record of the "August 15th Mid-Autumn Festival", but it is difficult to find an account of the Mid-Autumn Festival ceremonial activities from the history or notes, and it is a purely folk festival, far less red tape and solemn etiquette than the statutory official festival. Even if it is to admire the moon in the palace, most of it is from folk customs, but it is a feast and leisure in the palace garden, and there is no ceremonial note for the great gift of the pilgrimage. The Tang people are good at appreciating the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, about the purpose of this time autumn is high and refreshing, the clouds are light and the wind is light, suitable for inviting feasts to appreciate the moon, and there is no religious color of Buddhism. The themes of moonlight and moonlight in Tang poems are innumerable, which give more secularization to the laurel of the Toad Palace and the personification of Chang'e Wu Gang, which makes the Mid-Autumn Festival moon appreciation add a lot of romantic colors.
The formation of the Mid-Autumn Festival began about the Song Dynasty, but it is worth noting that the Mid-Autumn Festival at this time has not yet been included in the official festivals (the festivals of the Song Dynasty are only New Year's Day, Shangyuan, Zhonghe and Tianqing and Tianying festivals after Zhenzong), and the Mid-Autumn Festival is only as a festival and seasonal folk festival, such as Lichun, Qixi, Chongyang and the like, but the golden wind is refreshing, the dangui is fragrant, it is suitable for drinking and singing, climbing the tower to admire the moon, and also driving the business opportunities and prosperity of the capital city. The hotel sells new liquor and the song house hangs a red light. At night, the glitter is dazzling in the present, and the drumboard song is haunting the ears. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Jiangnan had the custom of setting off sheepskin water lamps. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, hundreds of thousands of sheepskin lamps were placed on the surface of rivers and lakes, called "a little red", brilliant as stars, which were recorded in the "Record of Dreams" and "Past Events of Wulin".
Exactly when the custom of eating mooncakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival diet began, has always been different, and most people agree that it began in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, food similar to mooncakes already existed, but it was not yet called "mooncakes". During the Han and Tang Dynasties, there were noodle cakes with filling, or steamed, or roasted, or burned, and the noodles were skined, and the middle was filled with caramel, flowers, sesame seeds, walnuts and other flowers and fruits. Similar to sweet snacks, it was common as early as the Tang Dynasty, and there were even exquisite boxes for holding. When Tang Gaozu Li Yuan saw this kind of boxed cookie, he once laughed at the bright moon in the sky and said, "You should invite the hu cake to the toad", so he and the group of ministers shared it. It is called Hu Cake because of the offerings made by the Turpan people to the Tang Emperor.
The word "mooncake" already appears in wu zimu's "Record of Dreams" of the Southern Song Dynasty, but it is not described in detail. At that time, the mooncake probably meant by its image, and there was no specific regulation. Folklore says that the mooncake originated from Zhu Yuanzhang's august 15th soldiers, in order to contact the rebels everywhere, using the mooncake to carry a note to convey the news, which is the origin of the mooncake, which is just a vain statement, in fact, it is not credible.
The Mid-Autumn Festival flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties, thus becoming one of the most important "three festivals" in the folk (the Shangyuan Festival and the Spring Festival are adjacent, generally the same section, in addition to the Dragon Boat Festival). The Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, commonly known as the "August Festival" and the "May Festival", are the two most important festivals outside the old calendar year, and are also three iconic times of the year. In the old days, the settlement of merchant shops and home patrons was often carried out in these three sections, and the peak sales season was also on the eve of these three festivals. The Ming Dynasty's "West Lake Tour Zhiyu" has recorded, "August 15 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the folk use moon cakes to leave each other, taking the meaning of reunion." Shen Bang's "Miscellaneous Records of Wanju" even recorded the customs of Beijing during the Ming Dynasty: "On August 15, the mooncakes were given to the shishu furniture with mooncakes, and the sizes were different, called 'mooncakes'. It can be seen that the Mid-Autumn MoonCake of the Ming Dynasty is not only a seasonal food, but also an indispensable gift for social gifts.
There are many varieties of Mid-Autumn MoonCakes, with various forms, but its regulation is round, taking its meaning of "reunion round", and now many Cantonese-style mooncakes are made into squares, I am afraid that the original meaning of mooncakes will be lost. In the old days, Beijing's mooncakes were mainly pulp-lifting and hair-turning, with both Su-style, Lai-pi and relatively low-grade "tap red" and "self-white" and the like, while Cantonese-style mooncakes only appeared in the 1920s. At that time, Mori Chunyang, who specialized in southern food, and later Daoxiangchun, first began to sell Cantonese mooncakes, and the filling was only bean paste, date paste, five kernels, and lotus mushrooms, which were far less numerous than today.2 Old Beijingers are more conservative, generally recognize Ruifangzhai, Zhengmingzhai and Juqingzhai several shops of the pulp mooncake and turning the hair mooncake, the price is cheaper than The Forest Yangchun, Daoxiangchun, the poor people are more "self-red" and "self-white" to meet the scene. Later, Dao Xiangchun invented the "improved moon cake", this kind of moon cake has a very thick skin, but baked with butter and noodles, although the filling is not large, it has a western taste, fragrant but not greasy, but not too sweet, very popular for a while. At that time, sweet meat, char siu, ham and Cloud leg (commonly known as "four two stones") mooncakes in Cantonese mooncakes were still relatively rare. Old Beijingers are not very receptive.
In the impression of today's young people, the image of mooncakes is represented by Cantonese-style mooncakes, and the homemade mooncakes in major hotels and restaurants are nothing more than this form, so in recent decades, it has become the dominant world of Cantonese-style mooncakes.
Due to the different times, different regions and different social levels, the customs of the Mid-Autumn Festival are not the same.
In terms of melons and fruits, watermelons in Beijing mid-autumn have basically gone down the market, although in the old days, although there were also foreign port watermelons entering Beijing, but because of the high price, and the old Beijingers have the custom of not eating melons after autumn, it is not the most commonly enjoyed. However, the big red pomegranate, the rose fragrant grapes of Shaying, the dates of Langjiayuan, the lotus root of the three seas, and the small white pears of Jingxi are the fruits of the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, there was also the extinct "Tiger Pulling Cart" (a sweet and crisp sand fruit, reddish green skin, and full of water), which is a popular fruit that is beneficial and costly. If you are extravagant, Yantai's chicken leg pears are also shipped to Beijing, that kind of Yantai chicken leg pears are sweet and fragrant, the water head is huge, the outer skin is broken as soon as it is rubbed, and now although it can be bought, it has reduced the fragrance of the water head, which does not seem to be the breed of the year. I suspect that the original Yantai pear is an imported fruit, and I have eaten authentic chicken leg pears in France and Germany, exactly the same as when I was a child.
Mid-Autumn Drinking Osmanthus wine is just a scene, August 15 drinking feast, Osmanthus wine is to drink a little, but the real drinkers still drink mung bean roast or lotus white, southerners drink more flower carvings and daughter red.
The most exciting thing about the Mid-Autumn Festival is that night falls, the jade rabbit rises in the east, especially when it is nearly midnight, the bright moon is bright, and when it is the season of "a round in the sky is held out, all the surnames in the world look up", whether it is under the porch of the courtyard or the mountain river in the wilderness, the full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival can be described as the final climax. If the evening is still covered by thin clouds, slowly the clouds break out of the moon, gradually rise into the middle of the sky, the silver light pours out, the suspense is released, and the mood of appreciating the moon is suddenly cheerful, is there no reason not to float a big white for this?
"August 15 clouds shade the moon" and "the fifteenth snow lamp of the first month" are about the regrets of the festival, the common feature of the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Shangyuan festival is that the moonlight in the sky and the lights on earth shine together, if the glory of the Shangyuan lights can make people ignore the bright moon color, then the round of the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is irreplaceable, so there are many activities such as moon sacrifice, moon worship, moon appreciation, and moon chanting.
The most Characteristic Mid-Autumn Festival objects are two, still fresh in memory, one is the mud tire of the rabbit grandfather and the rabbit grandmother, the image is vivid, in addition to the face and ears, the whole body is anthropomorphic, or wearing a handsome helmet, or wearing armor, wearing an outer robe, sitting on the back of the tiger, some also planted a back flag, the spirit is alive, although the size and form are different, but it is the same posture. I remember that in Mr. Lao She's "Four Generations Together", even during the fall of Peiping, the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, and Old Lady Qi had to buy a rabbit grandfather for her grandson Xiao Shun'er at the Huguo Temple to take home. After the mid-1960s, the rabbit was extinct, and it was not until the mid-1980s that it appeared as a folk craft. In 1985, Mr. ShuangQixiang gave me a statue of his handmade rabbit grandfather, which brought me many childhood memories at that time, which have been preserved for more than 20 years. Another thing is the "Moonlight God Code", also known as the "Moon Palace Symbol", which is actually a color print of a woodblock watermark, which reads "Guanghan Palace Taiyin Xingjun", which has a picture of the jade rabbit pounding medicine under the laurel tree outside the Guanghan Palace, which was sold in the streets and alleys of Beijing in the old days and in incense wax shops, and was incinerated with a candle after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Although this kind of god code is a chromatic woodblock watermark, but there is also a difference between fine and thick, Yang Liuqing, Wu Qiang printed the god code is very exquisite, far better than the production of ordinary workshops, today it is difficult to see. The Mid-Autumn Festival offering rabbits and moonlight goddess codes is just a folk custom, and it has nothing to do with religious beliefs.
"People have sorrows and joys, and the moon has clouds and sunshine, and this matter is difficult to complete." Despite this, people still hope that everything is perfect and flesh and blood will be gathered on the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, so the Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Reunion Festival.
One of my most memorable Mid-Autumn Festivals was spent in 1969 in the desert of northern Xinjiang.
In October 1969, I served as a "petty officer" in charge of providing money and food in the company of the Inner Mongolia Construction Corps, a sergeant. Because of the change in the establishment at that time, the original company was transferred to another new regiment, which involved the transfer and liquidation of the accounts of the new and old companies, so I was sent to the new regiment to handle this work. Forty miles apart, my means of transport consisted only of an old horse, riding along a path in the desert, stopping and going, about three hours before reaching the new regimental headquarters. After the handover was completed, it was nearly evening and I had to stay in a guest house with only two adobe rooms in the new regimental headquarters. I tied my horse to a stake outside the adobe house, and hurried to the regimental canteen to cook, buying three steamed buns and a bowl of cold boiled zucchini. After returning to the guest house to light the oil lamp, and after eating a steamed bun with a cold dish, I suddenly saw the calendar on the wall, and it turned out that it was the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. At that time, the Mid-Autumn Festival was already included in the "four olds", and this kind of season has also faded in people's memories, and it is found by chance that it is the Mid-Autumn Festival, which cannot but be said to be an unexpected surprise, especially if it is alone in the desert, there is an indescribable taste. At that time, there was only one commissary in the regimental headquarters of the newly built regiment, and all the goods would not exceed twenty varieties, not to mention mooncakes, even ordinary pastries that lacked oil and sugar. Rushing to the commissary, the only salesman was about to lock the door to work, and finally accommodated a little, and finally bought half a pound of white sugar. Back under the oil lamp in the adobe room, I broke open the remaining two steamed buns, sandwiched as much sugar as possible in the middle, and took advantage of the freshness of the steamed buns, pinched the surrounding areas, pressed them into two large cakes with my hands, and pinched some tricks on them. The two large mooncakes were thus completed, and they were really very decent, round, angular, although they were made of steamed buns, they were like a full moon. Ancient mooncakes are steamed, and these two steamed mooncakes are quite in line with the ancient meaning.
When a bright moon hovered between the bulls, I put on the torn cotton jacket I had brought with me on horseback and walked out of the empty regimental headquarters. Surrounded by endless deserts and gobi deserts, sitting down against a large sand dune, the sky and the earth are silent, the night sky seems so low, the stars are dense, the moon is empty, it is a vastness I have never seen before, and it is also a daze that I have never tasted, and the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is also as round and bright as I have never seen before, so bright, even the grass on the Gobi is so clear. I took out two sugar-filled "steamed mooncakes" from my cotton jacket pocket, and chewed and swallowed slowly against the empty desert starry sky, bathed in the silver moon, which was really the sweetest mooncake I had ever eaten. What I thought about that night lying on the dunes, I can't remember, maybe I didn't think about anything. Everything around me is so touching, is heaven and earth embracing me, or am I embracing heaven and earth? I think it should be integrated. It's been exactly forty years, and it's a Mid-Autumn Festival night I'll never forget.
This article is selected from the book "The Continuation of the Old Man", with deletions, and is published with the permission of the publishing house.