"On the night of August 15 of the past year, by the apricot orchard by the Qujiang Pool.
On the night of August 15 this year, in front of the Shatou Water Museum in Xiangpu.
Looking northwest to where is the township, southeast to see the moon several times round.
Last night's wind blew and no one would meet, and tonight the light was as clear as in previous years. ——Bai Juyi, "Looking at the Moon on the Night of August 15th"
This is not, the Mid-Autumn Festival is coming, and it is time to eat mooncakes and drink osmanthus wine to enjoy the day of the moon, and now there are many types of mooncakes on the market that make people pick their eyes, which can't help but remind me of when I was young, mooncakes basically only have the two tastes of egg yolk lotus paste and jujube paste, which is like what ice skin, matcha tea, milk yellow flowing heart, coconut paste, chocolate, beef ... It's drooling to think about.
Since we are writing the number of history, of course, we can not only talk about the taste of the moon cake, but to talk about the origin of the moon cake, who can think of this small piece of moon cake, the head is really not small, not only for the initiative of the Taishi, or the emperor hand-picked to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival of the cuisine, and finally by the name of the noble concubine, in the Republic of China period, the degree of popularity can even be purchased in stages.
Today, let's talk about the past and present lives of a piece of mooncake.
In 1046 BC, after a long period of preparation, Ji Fa, the king of Zhou Wu, finally joined forces with other princes to fight against Di Xin, which is often referred to as the King of Shang, and Di Xin sent Taishi Wenzhong to lead the army against the enemy.
Wen Zhong knew that this battle was likely to be lost, and these soldiers under his command wrapped the corpse of Ma Ge, so he created a sweet cake stuffed with fillings as a benefit for the soldiers, knowing that sweetness was a rare taste in ancient times. Later, in order to commemorate Wen Zhong, people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions named this kind of cake Taishi Cake, which has been widely circulated, which is the predecessor of moon cake.
In 126 BC, Zhang Qian, who had been sent to the Western Regions but had been detained by the Xiongnu for more than ten years, finally returned, and he also brought back a large amount of materials on the Western Regions. After Zhang Qian's return to China, the Silk Road gradually flourished, not only the silk, tea, ceramics and so on in the Central Plains spread to West Asia and even Europe through the Western Regions, but also the spices of the Western Regions have become good things that are widely sought after by the Central Plains people, and one of them is more special to eat, called Hu Cake.
As soon as the food was introduced, it immediately captured the hearts of thousands of foodies, from the emperor's ministers to the commoners, and everyone loved to eat the bearded bread. The "Book of Continuation of the Han Dynasty" has clouds: "Lingdi Good Hu Cake", the famous poet Bai Juyi simply wrote a poem "Sending Hu Cake and Yang Wanzhou": "Flax cake like Kyoto, crispy oil aroma newly baked." To ambassador Yang, taste like a blessing? "Fuxing is a very famous Hu cake shop in the southwest corner of Chang'an, and I never expected that there was a brand effect in ancient times."
The Mid-Autumn Festival, which comes from the ancient people's moon worship custom, was born from the Han Dynasty, but the festival that really took shape to become the celebration of the world was in the early Tang Dynasty, after all, Tang Taizong Li Shimin also loved to eat hu cakes.
It is recorded in the Book of Tang and the Book of Taizong: "The Mid-Autumn Festival on the fifteenth of August. The reason why the Mid-Autumn Festival was set on August 15 was because Li Jing's return from the Turks' victory was exactly August 15, and Li Shimin ordered the whole city to rejoice, and took out his beloved Hu Cake at the banquet and said: "You should invite the Hu Cake to mingyue." "Since then, the bright moon, the moon cake, and August 15 have been closely combined.
However, after all, the hu cake is not particularly elegant to eat, so everyone summed up, simply moved the pattern of the hu cake to the Taishi cake, and slowly developed into the appearance of the moon cake. Later, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji and his beloved Yang Guifei enjoyed the mid-Autumn Festival, Yang Guifei also played the Chang'e fairy, and the spirit machine pointed to the modified Taishi cake as a moon cake, so there was the name of moon cake.
Mooncakes are heavy oil and heavy sugar, in the era of lack of clothing and food in the Republic of China, but it is a rare high-quality food, so the price will certainly not be cheap. But the Mid-Autumn Festival, a festival of family gathering, is always over? Therefore, at that time, the rao shops (that is, mooncake shops) in Beijing city united to make a model that could be paid in installments.
For example, a box of mooncakes 100, you only have 40 pieces, then as long as you can provide proof that you are "old Beijing", and then find one or two guarantors nearby, you can set up a note to take the mooncakes away, and then pay 20 yuan a month on the line, is it very business-minded?