According to legend, ten suns appeared in the sky at the same time in ancient times, which scorched crops and made the people miserable. A hero named Hou Yi has infinite power. He sympathized with the suffering people, climbed to the top of Kunlun Mountain, exerted his divine power, drew his bow, shot down more than nine suns in one breath, and ordered the last one to rise and fall on time for the benefit of the people.
Hou Yi was respected and loved by the people. He married a beautiful and kind wife named Chang 'e. Besides hunting, Hou Yi is always with his wife, and people envy this beautiful and loving couple.
Many people with lofty ideals came here to study as teachers, and Meng Peng with ulterior motives joined in.
One day, Hou Yi went to Kunlun Mountain to visit friends and seek truth. He happened to meet the Queen Mother passing by and asked her for a bag of elixir. It is said that taking this medicine can instantly ascend to heaven and become immortal. However, Hou Yi was reluctant to leave his wife, so he had to temporarily give the elixir to Chang 'e. Chang 'e hid the medicine in the dresser's treasure chest, but the villain Meng Peng saw it. He wants to steal the elixir to make himself immortal.
Three days later, Hou Yi led his entourage out hunting, while Meng Peng with ulterior motives pretended to be ill. Shortly after Hou Yi led the crowd to leave, Meng Peng broke into the backyard of the back room with a sword in his hand, threatening Chang 'e to hand over the elixir. Chang 'e knew that she was no match for Meng Peng. In times of crisis, she made a decisive decision, turned around and opened the treasure chest, took out the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp. Chang 'e swallowed the medicine and immediately floated off the ground, rushed out of the window and flew into the sky. Because Chang 'e was worried about her husband, she flew to the nearest moon and became a fairy.
In the evening, when Hou Yi came home, the maids cried and told what happened during the day. Hou Yi was surprised and angry, and drew his sword to kill the villain. Meng Peng escaped early. Angry and heartbroken, Hou Yi looked up at the night sky and shouted the name of his beloved wife. At this time, he was surprised to find that today's moon is exceptionally bright and bright. There is a swaying figure resembling Chang 'e. He chased the moon desperately, but he chased it three times, the moon retreated three times, he retreated three times, and the moon advanced three times. He couldn't catch up anyway.
Hou Yi had no choice but to miss his wife, so he had to send someone to Chang 'e's favorite back garden, put on a table incense, put on her favorite honey and fresh fruit, and offer a distant sacrifice to Chang 'e who was attached to him at the Moon Palace. After hearing the news that the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon became an immortal, people made an incense table under the moon and prayed for good luck and peace to the kind Chang 'e.
Since then, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival in Yue Bai has spread among the people.
WU GANG, the second legend of Mid-Autumn Festival, won the laurel.
There is also a legend about the Mid-Autumn Festival: It is said that osmanthus trees in front of Guanghan Palace on the moon are flourishing, reaching more than 500 feet. There is a man who often cuts down, but every time he finishes cutting, the cut place closes immediately. For thousands of years, this laurel tree can never be cut down. It is said that the person who cut down trees was WU GANG, a native of Xihe in Han Dynasty. He used to practice in heaven with the immortal, but when he made a mistake, the immortal demoted him to the moon palace, and * * did this futile work as punishment. In Li Bai's poems, there is a record that "if you want to be in the middle of the month, you will pay for the cold."
Legend of Mid-Autumn Festival III —— Zhu Yuanzhang and Moon Cake Uprising
It is said that eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the broad masses of the people in the Central Plains could not bear the cruel rule of the ruling class in the Yuan Dynasty and rose up against the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang joined forces with various resistance forces to prepare for the uprising. However, the officers and men of the imperial court searched very closely and it was very difficult to pass on the news. Liu Bowen, a military strategist, came up with a plan and ordered his men to hide a note with the words "Uprising on the 15th of August" in the cake, and then sent people to the uprising troops in various places to inform them to respond to the uprising on 15th of August. On the day of the uprising, all the rebels responded together, such as a single spark can start a prairie fire.
Soon, Xu Da captured the Yuan Dynasty and the uprising was successful. When the news came, Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he quickly sent a message that all the soldiers should have fun with the people in the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and give the "moon cakes" secretly sent at the time of the war as seasonal cakes to the ministers. Since then, the production of "moon cakes" has become more and more elaborate, and there are more and more varieties, such as dishes, which have also become good gifts. The custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival will be in the future.
Legends about the Moon in Ancient China
The Goddess Chang's fly to the moon
According to legend, one year in ancient times, ten suns appeared in the sky, which made the earth smoke and the ocean dry up, and ordinary people could no longer live.
This incident alarmed a hero named Hou Yi. He climbed to the top of Kunlun Mountain, drew his bow and shot down nine redundant suns in one breath.
Hou Yi has made great achievements in the world and is respected and loved by the people. Many people with lofty ideals come here to study and be teachers. The treacherous and cunning Meng Peng also mixed in.
Soon, Hou Yi married a beautiful and kind wife named Chang 'e. Besides hunting, Hou Yi spends all his time with his wife, and people envy this beautiful and loving couple.
One day, Hou Yi went to Kunlun Mountain to visit friends and seek truth. He happened to meet the Queen Mother passing by and asked her for a bag of elixir. It is said that taking this medicine can instantly ascend to heaven and become immortal.
However, Hou Yi was reluctant to leave his wife, so he had to temporarily give the elixir to Chang 'e. Chang 'e hid the medicine in the dresser's treasure chest, but Meng Peng saw it.
Three days later, Hou Yi led his entourage out hunting, while Meng Peng with ulterior motives pretended to be ill.
Shortly after Hou Yi led the crowd to leave, Meng Peng broke into the backyard of the back room with a sword in his hand, threatening Chang 'e to hand over the elixir.
Chang 'e knew that she was no match for Meng Peng. In times of crisis, she made a decisive decision, turned around and opened the treasure chest, took out the elixir and swallowed it in one gulp.
Chang 'e swallowed the medicine and immediately floated off the ground, rushed out of the window and flew into the sky. Because Chang 'e was worried about her husband, she flew to the nearest moon and became a fairy.
In the evening, when Hou Yi came home, the maids cried and told what happened during the day. Hou Yi was surprised and angry, and drew his sword to kill the villain. Meng Peng has escaped. I was so angry that Hou Yi beat his chest and shouted. The grief-stricken Hou Yi looked up at the night sky and called the name of his beloved wife. At this time, he was surprised to find that today's moon is particularly bright and bright, with a swaying figure resembling Chang 'e.
Hou Yi hurriedly sent someone to Chang 'e's favorite back garden, set up a table sweetmeats, put on her favorite honey-eating fresh fruit, and offered a memorial service to Chang 'e at the Moon Palace.
After hearing the news that the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon became an immortal, people set up an incense table under the moon and prayed for good luck and peace to the kind Chang 'e. Since then, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival in Yue Bai has spread among the people.
The Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon's story, Chang 'e, praised and praised Chang 'e with a clear posture and gorgeous colors. Comparing the records of Chang 'e in ancient literature, we can see that people have done a lot of processing and modification to the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon's story, which makes Chang 'e's image as beautiful as the moon and accords with people's pursuit of beauty. Contrary to the goddess the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, which was widely circulated in modern times, all the ancient Chinese character series Lingxian in China recorded the story of "Chang 'e became a toad": "Chang 'e married his wife, stole the elixir from the Queen Mother and took it to the moon. Will go, occupy the grave. Zhi said, "Ji, you go back to your sister, and you go west alone." . You won't be surprised or afraid when it's dark, but you will prosper in the future.' Chang 'e entrusted herself to the moon for the sake of toad. "After Chang 'e became a toad, she was punished in the moon palace all day and lived a lonely and miserable life. Li Shangyin once lamented Chang 'e in a poem: "Chang 'e should regret stealing the elixir and stay awake at night. "
Houyi shot down nine suns.
Legend has it that Hou Yi and Chang 'e are both Yao people. According to the myth, in the Yao period, ten suns appeared in the sky at the same time, scorched the land and dried the crops. People were so hot that they could not breathe and fell unconscious on the ground. Due to the hot weather, some strange birds and animals also ran out from the dry rivers and lakes and the fiery forests, causing harm to people everywhere.
The human disaster alarmed the gods in heaven, and the heavenly emperor Chang Jun ordered Hou Yi, who was good at archery, to come down to earth to help Yao get rid of the people's suffering. Hou Yi came to the world with a red bow, a bag of white arrows and his beautiful wife Chang 'e.
Hou Yi immediately started shooting at the sun. He took the red bow from his shoulder, took out the white arrows and shot them at his arrogant grandson one by one. In an instant, nine out of ten suns were shot. It was only because Yao thought that leaving a grandson was useful to the people that Hou Yi was prevented from continuing shooting. This is the story of the famous Houyi Shooting Day.
However, Hou Yi's great achievements were envied by other gods, who went to the Heaven Emperor to spread rumors and slander, so that the Heaven Emperor finally alienated Hou Yi and sentenced him to the world forever. After being wronged, Hou Yi and his wife Chang 'e had to live in seclusion and hunt for a living by Hou Yi.
How did Chang 'e fly to the moon? There are different versions in ancient books. According to Huai Nan Zi, Hou Yi sympathized with his wife who was exiled to the world because of her troubles, and went to the Queen Mother of the West to ask for the medicine of immortality, so that the husband and wife could live in harmony forever. However, Chang 'e is not used to living a poor life. When Hou Yi was not at home, she stole all the pills and fled to the moon. Another way of saying it is that Qu Yuan (about 340 letters? 78) According to Tian Wen, Hou Yi later cheated on Chang 'e and had an affair with Hebo's wife, which aroused Chang 'e's great dissatisfaction, so he left Hou Yi and ran to the sky. After the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon, I soon regretted it. She remembered her husband's kindness to her at ordinary times and the warmth of the world. Compared with the loneliness on the moon, she felt desolate.
Regarding the death of Hou Yi, Mencius, a thinker in the Warring States period (about 372 BC? Mencius (89) and Liu An (BC 179? 22) In the book Huai Nan Zi, it is said that he was assassinated by a renegade disciple, Feng Meng. There are different records about the means of ambush, some say that they were killed with mahogany sticks, and some say that they were killed with dark arrows. In short, the hero of the earth died at the hands of a schemer.
Some legends also say that after the death of Hou Yi, the hero's soul lingered and became a ghostly Zhong Kui god. This statement has been verified by Gu Jiegang (1893- 1980), a famous historian in China, according to the records of Huainanzi and other ancient books. This statement actually reflects the infinite nostalgia of the ancient people of China for this unfortunate lost hero.
The origin of the Mid-Autumn festival
The traditional food of Mid-Autumn Festival is moon cakes, which are round, symbolizing reunion and reflecting people's good wishes for family reunion. Eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival is said to have started in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang led the Han people to resist the tyranny of the Yuan Dynasty, agreed on the August 15th uprising, and put a note in the moon cake to convey the news. The custom of eating moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival spread among the people.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang finally overthrew the Yuan Dynasty and became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Although Manchu people later entered China, people still celebrated this festival, which symbolized the overthrow of alien rule.
Wugang cut laurel
Legend has it that there is a laurel tree 500 feet high on the moon. There was a man named WU GANG in the Han Dynasty who was obsessed with fairy tales and didn't concentrate on reading. He was banished to the moon to cut laurel, but the laurel in the moon was also cut, and it was cut endlessly, so later generations could see the image of WU GANG cutting laurel endlessly in the middle of the month.