Can rabbit king become Ambassador of Ji'nan Mid Autumn Festival?
source: the Ji'nan times
Mid Autumn Festival, enjoying the moon, eating moon cakes, and offering the "king of the rabbit". In the hundreds of years before the "Cultural Revolution", it was a popular custom in old Ji'nan. Nowadays, the Mid Autumn Festival is still enjoying the moon. Many kinds of beautifully packaged moon cakes are numerous, but the rabbit king in old Ji'nan is hard to see. In the third batch of municipal "non heritage" list published in Ji'nan in June this year, "Zhou's rabbit king" is among them.
in Ji'nan, the most famous "king of the rabbit" is to make several generations of clay sculptures and Zhou Jingfu, the fourth generation of "rabbit king", known as "rabbit son". On the afternoon of the 18 day, the reporter came to the District of meadow. After the impact of the impact of the "Cultural Revolution", Ji'nan only restored the successors of Mr. Zhou Jingfu, the old man of the traditional "rabbit king", the fifth generation of the "rabbit king" of Zhou, and the 46 year old Mr. Zhou Bingsheng. During the conversation, Zhou Yuqing, Zhou Bingsheng's 81 year old aunt, happened to visit her sister-in-law (Zhou Jingfu's wife and Zhao Daoying, 75). Zhou Yuqing, who was young with his father and grandfather, made "the rabbit king" with his nephew Zhou Bingsheng, and talked with reporters about some of the past events of the old Ji'nan "rabbit king"...
the Mid Autumn Festival home of the "rabbit king"
talking about old Ji'nan's "rabbit king", the 81 year old old man Zhou Yuqing opened the box: "I was followed my father and my grandfather to learn to do 'King of the rabbit. My grandfather was learning with my grandfather. My father's name is Zhou Changhai. He is a mason. Our family used to live as a rabbit king and a clay toy. Zhou Yuqing introduced that she had six sisters, and Zhou Jingfu ranked the third. She ranked fourth. After Zhou Jingfu died in December 2004, her generation is left behind by a 74 year old brother.
Zhou Yuqing said that in the past, there was a custom of Mid Autumn Festival in Ji'nan, and there was also a "rabbit king" that was rare in other places along with the Mid Autumn Festival. In August, the fifteen families set up the toys on the table for the worship of the moon hare. After the month of the festival, "the rabbit king" became the toy for the children. "At that time, my family began to be busy as the" rabbit king "in the first five or six months of the Mid Autumn Festival. Before the festival, there were cakes and fruit stalls from the streets of Puli men to Shun Jing Street, and the rabbit king could be seen in every stall. People buy moon cakes and give gifts to relatives and friends.
"rabbit king" symbolizes peace and auspicious
Zhou Bingsheng's house is on the two floor, which is a three bedroom. Reporters saw that there were dozens of mud embryos "rabbit king" on the front balcony. Zhou Bingsheng said it was drying, and the next step was to cut the edges. In another house in the north, there is a rabbit king with a layer of white powder on the table. The next step is to dry the face and paint it. In a cook on the east side of the house, all kinds of "rabbit king" have been filled up and down. All these "rabbit kings" have long ears, white face red lips, rabbit face, hats on their heads, red robes, handheld pestle, spear, steel whip, treasure, and some also rode tigers, unicorns, dragons. Zhou Bingsheng told reporters that the largest "Dahongpao" and "rabbit king" in the middle were his own father Zhou Jingfu made by himself. Zhou Bingsheng said that old Ji'nan had a special liking for "rabbit king" because "rabbit king" symbolized peace and auspiciousness.
in Ji'nan, the "king of the rabbit" has a beautiful legend,
honorary president of the provincial folklore society, and Professor Li Wanpeng of Shandong University, telling a reporter an old legend: in ancient times, a year in August, a strange disease spread in Ji'nan. The people were very miserable, so we all prayed for God's blessing. At the Mid Autumn Festival in August, the jade hare in the Moon Palace in the Moon Palace knew the people of the world were suffering, and immediately filled with medicine cake to Ji'nan, but there was no way to save the people of the city as soon as possible. At this time, Yu rabbit heard the sound of "gurgling" water, his eyebrows wrinkled, and he thought of it. The jade rabbit put the medicine cake in the eyes of the seventy-two springs in the city. Ji'nan is known as "the spring of every family, the name of every household." The medicine dissolved in the spring water and ran through the whole city of Ji'nan. After the people drank the spring water, they were all cured. From then on, the story of the rabbit's medicine cake coming to the world to save lives also spread throughout the world.