Idle Qin Zaisi "Luozhong ji wen" said, Tang Xi Zong in the Mid-Autumn Festival day to eat moon cakes, the taste is extremely beautiful, he heard of new scribes of Qujiang set up a joyful feast, then ordered the Imperial Kitchen to red damask wrapped in moon cakes rewarded to the new scribes. This is the earliest record we can see about the moon cake. By the Song Dynasty, mooncakes had elegant names such as "lotus leaf", "golden flower", "hibiscus" and so on, and their production methods were even more elegant. The poet Su Dongpo praised in a poem, "small cakes such as chewing the moon, there are crispy and syrup", crispy is shortening, syrup is sugar, the flavor of its sweet and crispy and beautiful can be imagined. After the Song Dynasty, the production of moon cakes not only pay attention to the flavor, but also in the surface of the cake designed a variety of patterns related to the legend of the Moon Palace. Patterns on the surface of the cake, at first probably first drawn on paper and then pasted on the surface of the cake, after the industry simply use the surface mold pressed on top of the moon cake. The full-moon shaped mooncake also symbolizes reunion with the full moon on the fifteenth day of the month, and people treat it as a festival food, offer it to the moon, and give it to friends and relatives. This is undoubtedly a reflection of the national psychology of the Han people. Legend has it that in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan-Mongolian rulers were afraid of the people to rise up in revolt, to take every ten families to send a soldier to monitor, ten only allowed to use a chopper of the high-pressure policy, the people could not stand it, they took the opportunity to give each other mooncakes on the fifteenth day of the Mid-Autumn Festival of the eighth month, in the mooncake to put a wax pellet, wrapped in wax pellets in the paper, paper, paper, written on the oath, the cake bottom is also attached to a piece of paper to do the implied, so that each other to call for the restoration of the country against the Mongolian. Wenzhou, Zhejiang area called this moon cake for "three Jin", according to the local dialect of the harmonic is "kill tight". This is probably the origin of the paper that is often attached to the outside of today's mooncakes.
The Tide
"The Jade Rabbit is very round, and the frosty winds are already cold in September. I would like to send a message to the heavy door to rest on the key, and leave the night tide to the moon to see." This is the Song Dynasty poet Su Shi wrote "August 15 tide" poem. In ancient times, Zhejiang, in addition to the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, tide watching can be regarded as another Mid-Autumn event. Mid-autumn tide-watching custom from a long time ago, as early as in the Han Dynasty, Mei multiplied the "seven hair" in the big fugue has been quite exhaustive account. After the Han Dynasty, the custom of watching the tide in mid-autumn was even more prevalent. Ming Zhu Tinghuan "Additions to the old story of Wulin" and Song Wu Zimu "Mengliang record" also have tide watching records. These two books described the tide of the spectacle, indicating that in the Song Dynasty, the mid-autumn tide reached an unprecedented peak.
Lighting
Mid-autumn night, the sky is clear as water, the moon is as bright as a mirror, can be described as the beauty of the good times, however, the people did not meet, so there will be burning lamps to help the moon's custom. In Hunan and Guangdong have tile stacked tower in the tower on the lights of the festival. In the south of the Yangtze River there is a system of lights boat custom. In recent times, the custom of burning lamps in the Mid-Autumn Festival is more prevalent. Zhou Yunjin and He Xiangfei said in their article "Leisurely Trying to Talk about Seasonal Events", "The most prevalent lanterns in Guangdong are made of bamboo strips ten days before the festival. The lanterns were made in the shape of fruits, birds, animals, fishes and worms, as well as the words 'Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival', on which colorful paper was pasted and painted in various colors. Mid-Autumn Festival night lights burning candles with a rope tied to a bamboo pole, high tree on the eaves or terrace, or with small lights built into characters or various shapes, hanging in the high places of the family house, commonly known as 'tree Mid-Autumn Festival' or 'vertical Mid-Autumn Festival'. The lights hung by the rich and noble families, up to several feet high, the family gathered under the lights to drink for fun, the ordinary people are erected a flagpole, two lanterns, but also to take their own fun. City full of lights is like a glazed world." It seems that from ancient times to the Mid-Autumn Festival lighting custom of its scale seems to be second only to the Lantern Festival.
Playing with the rabbit
The courtesans' "Record of the past" written by Jin Yi and Shen Yi Antelope recounted the story of a courtesan named Rong'er. At that time it was the Eight-Power Allied Forces into Beijing that year, the Empress Dowager Cixi escaped from Kyoto, on the way to escape coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Empress Dowager in a panic, but also did not forget the old rituals and ancient customs, it was in the apartment of the Xinzhou Tribute to the ceremony held in the moon festival. The story says, "After dinner, according to the custom of the palace, the Empress to worship 'Taiyin Jun'. This is probably along the lines of the northeastern custom that 'men do not worship the rabbit, and women do not sacrifice to the stove,' but the 'Taiyin-kun' is sacrificed by the housewife of each family. In the southeast corner of the courtyard, an offering table was set up, and a sacred code (a piece of paper with a large rabbit pounding medicine in the moon palace) was brought out and inserted into the incense altar. The incense altar is a square bucket, and the bucket in northern Jin is not round, but square. Sometimes I hear people from northern Jinbei singing, "The moon is not as round as a square bucket, and it is not as sweet as the tenderness of the sister Ga. Visible, Jinbei bucket is all square. The bucket is full of new sorghum, the mouth of the bucket with yellow paper, four plates of fruit on the table, four plates of mooncakes, mooncakes stacked up to half a foot high. In addition, the center of a large wooden plate, placed in the diameter of a foot long round mooncake, which is dedicated to the sacrifice of the rabbit to do. There are also two branches of new hairy bean curd. Four bowls of clear tea were made by putting tea leaves in a bowl and rinsing it with cool water. In this way, by the Empress with the consort, Gege and all of us to perform the ritual, even if the ritual is complete. We are running away from the outside, very superstitious, lest there is a little bad etiquette, offended the gods and ghosts, give themselves a disaster. So when there was a chance to kowtow to the gods and ghosts, we all scrambled to participate, and none of us dared to pull back! Juanzi and I kowtowed instead." This story is about the rules of the Qing dynasty court to worship the moon rabbit, although it is in the midst of fleeing, incense altar had to be replaced by a square dipper in Jinbei, but from a psychological point of view, because in the difficult, so the god is more reverent and pious. From this story, the court of the Qing Dynasty is the moon in the Jade Rabbit called Taiyinjun. However, the folk is different, the people call it the Jade Rabbit, this kind of name is not as serious and solemn as that of Taiyinjun, but it seems to be more intimate. In the Beijing area of folklore, the Mid-Autumn Festival sacrifices rabbit master is not enough solemnity and games have more, although a little bit of God does not seem to respect, but it reflects the alienation of the folk god psychology. Since the Mid-Autumn Festival has been transformed into a folk festival by the rituals of the moon festival, the rituals have been diluted, and the nature of the tour is becoming more and more prominent, playing with the rabbit custom, can be said to be a strong corroboration of this phenomenon.
Playing with the moon
Mid-Autumn Festival playing with the moon, people call it the moon, which is a good thing for the ancients with a good thing. Study the form of playing with the moon, the rich more colorful building, greedy more send pike restaurant, good swimmers or climbed in the mountains, or pan in the water, and must be prepared for the nuclear food and wine syrup, the literati poems, the common people speak of ancient times, often all night long. In addition to the aristocrats and folk play the moon, in addition there is a tour-type play the moon. Tang Li Shibi "Mid-Autumn Festival Night Junshan Terrace looking at the moon" poem: "Dike flowers in front of the Jinjiang River, poetry and wine with the tour for forty years. The brightest night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the same day as the moon on Dongting Lake." This is the mountain climbing to play with the evidence of the moon. Ming "Jiangnan Zhishu" records: Changshu County in August, the day of hope, "the tourists boat set Lake Bridge to look at the moon." This is the canoeing to play with the evidence of the moon. Of course, the ancients to play with the moon, and not only to play and enjoy the moon in the sky, and often the moon and other scenes in nature together, such as the famous landscape - Lugou dawn moon, three pools, etc., undoubtedly are people playing with the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival is the perfect place.