Does Grandpa Rabbit have anything to do with Mid-Autumn Festival? What is a rabbit?

Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, old Beijingers had an important folk activity. On the evening of August 15, every household needs to put a square table in the yard, and put fruits and vegetables, moon cakes, peas and cockscomb flowers to worship the moon god. Fruits, vegetables and moon cakes are easy to understand, so what is the pea horn for? It is specially prepared for "male prostitutes".

"Ye" is an honorific title for people with aristocratic influence in the old society. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, please "sacrifice" a clay sculpture of a "rabbit" in a respectful place. This rabbit is not a human animal or a wild rabbit, but a jade rabbit in the Guanghan Palace, so it is respectfully called "Ye"! Male prostitute is a traditional handicraft of Han nationality in Beijing, and it is also a seasonal toy for children during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

What will happen to male prostitutes in the late Ming dynasty. Ji Kun, a Ming Dynasty man, recorded in the manuscript of the Examination Hall: "The Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing is mostly in the shape of a mud rabbit, dressed like a human figure, and children worship it." This is also the first historical record about male prostitutes. The more common "male prostitutes" are generally warriors wearing golden helmets and shining armor. Moreover, there is only one pheasant feather in the hat. There is a proverb in old Beijing: "the feather of a male prostitute"-single killing.

There are many kinds of male prostitutes in Nancheng, old Beijing, including clay sculpture, cloth sculpture, paper sculpture and wood carving ... There are many clay sculptures, ranging in size from three feet to three inches. They all have pink faces, wearing golden helmets and armour, and carrying a flag or umbrella cover on their backs. It has a lion, a tiger, a deer and different elephants. A prostitute holds a mortar in her right hand and a pestle in her left hand as medicine. In addition, there are male prostitutes, the inner cavity and upper lip are alive, the middle part is released, Rachel, cleft lip and palate are hit hard. In a word, there are many varieties, and so on. In order to make male prostitutes have a happy home, many people invite their "married" grandmother back and invite her to the table to make them love their husband and wife.

In old Beijing, many businesses take this as their business. Every August of the lunar calendar, they set up stalls in the street and become a scene of the August Festival. There are stalls selling male prostitutes at the entrance of the five archways in the middle, in front of Nanjing Drum Tower, Xidan and East. Children and adults who go to buy male prostitutes are crowded and bustling. Yi Shu, a famous writer, recalled the good times in Male Prostitute at that time and once said with deep affection: "Male prostitute is the representative of Mid-Autumn Festival in childhood, but it seems that it is not the Mid-Autumn Festival without male prostitute. Children have to buy male prostitutes. Everyone thinks that male prostitutes don't buy it. How is it possible? "

Since the late Ming Dynasty, the folk male prostitute movement has been widely spread rapidly. In the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court not only did not destroy the tradition of offering sacrifices to the moon by the Han people, but also inherited this tradition very devoutly. The activities of offering sacrifices to the moon in the harem are also best decission. Eight-Nation Alliance went to Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi did not forget to offer sacrifices to Nine Baby Rabbits on her way to escape. The court in Qing Dynasty called the Jade Rabbit Taiyin Jun .. But the folk sacrifice of rabbits was not so dignified, which reflected the characteristics of enjoyment. The common people call yutu a prostitute. Although this title is not as serious and dignified as "Taiyin Jun", it is also very close. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, male prostitutes had become both tributes and toys for children in the Mid-Autumn Festival. Qing Dynasty poet Quercus Weng wrote a poem "Rabbit Festival" in "Yantai New Ode": "Every family celebrates the Reunion Festival, and the class sings and laughs to recommend melons and fruits. The wife who stole the medicine said she was widowed, but the cunning rabbit who painted gold was called Ye. The autumn wind is rustling in the moon and camping in the sky, and the toad reflects the cold night water. I am used to playing with children, and printing mud and paper is also a struggle for sand. " During the Republic of China, despite the change of dynasties, the custom of offering sacrifices to and enjoying male prostitutes continued. Even during the Japanese invasion of China, rabbits were still very popular.

Then why do old Beijingers need to marry male prostitutes on August 15th? There is a legend here: it is said that one year an epidemic broke out in Beijing, killing many people and screaming everywhere. The Jade Rabbit Fairy Chang 'e couldn't bear to see this unbearable picture in the sky. She sent the jade rabbit beside her to the world to see a doctor for the people. Yutu became a beautiful girl, and every household gave people pills, red and yellow, as long as they were sick. This kind of white and red medicine particles later developed into "naturally invited red" and "naturally invited white" moon cakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Many people give Jade Rabbit something to thank him. But Yutu doesn't need anything. She just borrowed other people's clothes to wear. She has to dress up everywhere, sometimes as a vendor and sometimes as a fortune teller. One minute he dressed up as a man, and the next he became a woman. Because it can treat a large number of people, Yutu sits on deer, Leo and tiger, which is much faster than walking. She traveled all over the capital and saved a large number of people. Later, in order to celebrate and thank the kindness of Yutu, everyone painted the image of Yutu in mud, including those riding deer, tigers, lions, armor and various work clothes, all of which were so cute. On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, every family needs to pay homage to him, and use delicious food, fruits, vegetables and peas to repay the good luck and beauty he brought to the world, and also affectionately call her "rabbit father".

Now the situation of male prostitutes is not as good as before, and it has become a rarity. Even in the Mid-Autumn Festival, there are almost no male prostitutes, except for some processing shops. Children also gradually don't know what a male prostitute is. Even so, the beautiful folklore stories and vivid brand image of male prostitutes have not been completely erased from the public's memory. Especially the older generation, in their pure and simple childhood memories, male prostitutes are always solemn and gorgeous. When Beijing's bid for the Olympic Games was successful, the famous calligraphy master Qi Gong learned that he would choose the Olympic mascot and said without hesitation, "If you want me to vote online, I will vote for a prostitute." In Lao She's Four Generations under One roof, the old man of Qi remembers that his descendants "will soon live in Beiping without male prostitutes. With the settlement of male prostitutes, many, many super cute and unique items in Beiping will inevitably take root! " The old Beijingers' complex for male prostitutes can be seen.

Don't underestimate a small clay sculpture "male prostitute", which has affected every aspect of Beijing people's life. Male Prostitute not only shows folk customs such as Peking Opera and festival life, but also shows the struggle spirit of old Beijingers. Among the many brand images in Male Prostitute, the image of riding a tiger is typical. Because the tiger's ferocity embodies the magical power of male prostitutes and is a bold creation of folk handicrafts, it also shows the optimistic and open-minded attitude of old Beijingers to life. In particular, if male prostitutes are regarded as gods and small toys, and "worship and appreciation are closely combined", then only Beijing culture and art have experienced prosperity and understanding after vicissitudes. Only when you have seen the world and experienced the free and easy after the storm will you have a mentality of combining power and even gods with positivism and lifeism. It can be said that male prostitutes are a model of Beijing culture and art and a symbol of local representative folk culture.