Mooncake folklore
It's the mid-autumn solstice again. Throughout the ages, every Mid-Autumn Festival, when the moon is empty, the family reunites, tastes mooncakes and appreciates the bright moon, chats about the sky and the earth, and is happy. In the 20th year of the Republic of China, the "Gaoyang County Record" and customs contained: "August 15 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Qi You rate many melons and fruits and mooncakes to give each other. In the evening, the family celebrates the moon, and the neighbors invite each other to drink. "It can be seen that every Mid-Autumn Festival in the local people, relatives and friends give each other with melon fruit mooncakes, and the family worships the moon in the evening, and its custom is old.
Tasting mooncakes is an important part of the folklore of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Regarding the origin of mooncakes, there are three main theories. One is the origin of Yin Zhou: The predecessor of the legend mooncake is the Taishi cake commemorating the Taishi Wen Zhong of the Shang Dynasty; First, the origin of the concubine said: It is said that Yang Guifei during the Tang Xuanzong ate "buttercakes" during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the concubines thought that the word "buttercakes" was ugly, so they changed the name to mooncakes. But she and Hu Ren often dance the "Hu Xuan Dance", and they are not tired of it, why is it annoying to mention Hu Cake; First, the origin of the peasant uprising said: According to legend, the peasant rebel army at the end of the Yuan Yuan Dynasty hid a note in the mooncake and agreed to raise the flag on August 15 to rebel. None of the three theories is reliable, none of them are supported by historical materials, and they belong to legendary legends. Because in the ancient books of the Southern Song Dynasty, the word "mooncake" appeared for the first time. The word "mooncake" first appeared in the "Mengli Record" written by Wu Zimu of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the contemporaneous Zhou Mi also mentioned mooncake in "Old Stories of Wulin". Before that, there was no such thing as mooncakes. It's just that the so-called mooncakes in the Southern Song Dynasty, like many food spots such as hibiscus cakes and chrysanthemum cakes at that time, were just a kind of market snack, and "they are available at all times, and they are at your disposal, and you don't mistake the patron." At this time, mooncakes, simply because they resemble a full moon and are sold on the streets all year round, are not associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival.
When exactly did mooncakes become a necessity for the Mid-Autumn Festival? Since the Ming Dynasty, eating mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival has only become customary among the people. Jin Shitian Rucheng of the Ming Jiajing Dynasty wrote in "West Lake Excursion Zhiyu": "August 15 is called the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the people give mooncakes to each other to take the meaning of reunion. "This is the earliest record of the folklore of mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is basically the same as the "Gaoyang County Record" recorded that "August 15 is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Qi You rate mostly melons and fruits and mooncakes to give each other". Mid-Autumn Festival, giving mooncakes to each other, drawing the colorful head of the full moon and people's circle, "May people be long-lasting, thousands of miles together", is exactly the portrayal of this wish. At that time, mooncakes not only represented "reunion", but also became a good gift for people to give each other during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the custom of giving mooncakes to each other was popular in the Ming Dynasty. Liu Ruoyu, a eunuch at the end of the Ming Dynasty, recorded in the "Zhizhongzhi": "Since the first day of the first year, there have been mooncake sellers, and by the fifteenth, families have offered mooncakes, melons and fruits... If there are leftover mooncakes, they should be collected in a dry and cool place, and used until the twilight. It can be seen that after the Ming Dynasty people sacrificed the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, there was a custom of a family sitting around to eat mooncakes and melons and fruits, and the meaning of mooncake "reunion" gradually penetrated into the hearts of the people. Qing Fucha Dunchong recorded in the "Records of the Age of Yanjing": The Jingshi is known as the August Festival, that is, the Mid-Autumn Festival. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, Fudi Zhumen presents mooncakes and fruits. When the 15th month is full, the fruit of the aged melon is offered in the garden, and edamame and cockroaches are worshipped. It is also the time, when the sky is empty, the colorful clouds are dispersed, the cup is passed and washed, and the children are noisy, which is really called the festival. But men do not bow during the moon. Therefore, the Jing master proverb: "Men do not worship the moon, and women do not sacrifice to the stove." "It can be seen that the folk custom of mooncake gradually became popular among the people during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In fact, as early as before the Ming Dynasty, the food content of the mooncake itself was already available, but it lacked a "cultural empowerment". During the Wei and Jin dynasties, round cakes were filled with filling, and mutton was common. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the filling was more and richer. Su Dongpo mentioned in "Leave Away from Honesty" that a kind of pie filling is a small round cake with ghee and sugar, which is no different from the current mooncake. Du Fu wrote in the poem: "The immortals drunk and asked the green sky, and the little shortbread was like a bright moon." In the Yuan Dynasty, the production of cakes changed, changing the steaming of round cakes in the Song Dynasty to baking, closer to today's mooncakes. It should be pointed out that in the Song Dynasty and before, bread was a collective term for all pasta. Today's steamed buns were called cooking cakes at that time, and today's noodles were called soup cakes at that time. When flat and round pasta appeared on the market, which resembled the moon, mooncakes were gradually formed.