Cheung Mo Gei: inventor of the mooncake?!

[The Khan]

Never use TVB adaptations of novels as your basis for anything. They suck monkey's balls

[TommyH]

5 October 2006

Here we are again, the time of the year to consider (and re-consider) the subject of mooncakes from the wuxia point of view. Searching the forum, the earliest incidence of this topic occurred in 2004, viz:
http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=9256

... and was revisited in this thread in 2005.

With the Mooncake/Mid-Autumn/Lantern Festival a day away (6 Oct 2006), I'm resurrecting this year-old thread with an excerpt from HSDS, mostly because I thought that it might be nice to have "The Mooncake Legend According to Jin Yong and HSDS" recorded somewhere for posterity.

Here goes:

HSDS Chapter 25 (2nd and 3rd editions):

Excerpt 1

The men did not have any objections, so it was made clear that the leaders of the various branches of the Ming Sect would gather three months later during mid-Autumn in the eighth lunar month, in Butterfly Valley, Hu Qingniu's former abode to the north of the River Huai.

---

Excerpt 2

Then, Zhang Wuji said, "It is difficult to shake the century-old foundations of the Yuan Dynasty by the strength of our Sect alone. We must contact all the heroic men of outstanding ability under the sun, and pool our wisdom and efforts, so that the great task will succeed. Right now, more than half of the leaders of the martial arts circle of the Central Region have been captured by the imperial court. Our headquarters will find a way to rescue them at once. Brothers, we must spread out in four directions tomorrow and kill any barbarians that we chance upon. At the same time, the headquarters will proceed to the Capital (Dadu) and set the rescue plan in motion. We will enjoy ourselves to the fullest today, for we do not know when we will meet again. Brothers, we must value the code of brotherhood and give priority to the great task. We must never fight among ourselves for power and personal benefit. If such unrighteous incidents occur, the headquarters will certainly not spare the perpetrators."

"We will definitely not disobey the commands of our Sect-Leader!" replied the men at the gathering as their voices reveberated throughout the valley. Then, the men swore an oath with blood ... not to forsake their great goal of righteousness.

That night, the moon shone as bright as day. When the men sat down to eat, the organisers served them round flat cakes with vegetarian fillings. The men thought the cakes looked like the moon and hence dubbed them 'mooncakes'. As time went on, the incident of the Han people making a pact to eat mooncakes and kill the barbarians in their land during the mid-Autumn celebration of the eighth lunar month was said to have arisen from this righteous gathering of the Ming Sect.

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Happy Mid-Autumn!

HYS

Happy Mid-Autumn to you to. As a matter of fact...I think I'm going to eat a mooncake right now...(no I didn't buy them...they're homemade).

[kidd]

You mean Chang'er? That has nothing to do with mooncakes, I believe. Something to do with an unhappy marriage and drinking a potion that sent her flying to the moon. Or drinking a potion by mistake that also sent her flying and locked up in the moon. Or something entirely different about a daughter of a diety committing a mistake, and consequently sent to the moon to repent.

That's also something about a rabbit and cow-man (Niu Lang). I'm starting to think about Hou Yi (the sun-shooting guy) so I guess I'm getting all those myths and legends all mixed up.

Cowherd and daughter of the diety (spinning girl) belong to another fairytale.

Hou Yi was Chang-er's husband. According to the legend I read, Hou Yi shot down 9 suns. So, a diety gave him a immortality pill as reward. But Chang-er ate the pill and flew to the moon.

The man on the moon is Wu Kang. The legend I heard was that he was punished to chop a magic tree on the moon for eternity.

[c13:4567]

great work as usual, thanks HuangYushi saved me the time from having to search for it in the novel

[wkeej]

happy belated mooncake festival. in fact, i did not see any moon on that day.
if you miss me, sorry for mia for so long.

[Ken Cheng]

Well, it's that time of year again when we contemplate whether or not Jin Yong ever meant to suggest that Cheung Mo Gei might have been the originator of the mooncake.

[Ren Wo Xing]

Ken, you truly are the King of the Search Engine and Thread Resurrecting.

[Ken Cheng]

Ken, you truly are the King of the Search Engine and Thread Resurrecting.

I love thread necromancy, don't you?

[Ren Wo Xing]

If you are a lover of thread necromancy, doesn't that make you a forum necrophiliac?

[Ken Cheng]

I'm sure you've heard the rumors during the 60s...

<------------------------ "Paul is dead, man."

If you are a lover of thread necromancy, doesn't that make you a forum necrophiliac?

[Ren Wo Xing]

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Ken, I hate to say this but...I wasn't even close to being alive in the 60's, bro. That joke is officially outdated...and another example of your necromantic/necrophiliac powers!

[Ken Cheng]

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Ken, I hate to say this but...I wasn't even close to being alive in the 60's, bro. That joke is officially outdated...and another example of your necromantic/necrophiliac powers!

I was born in 1972. Missed the 60s by two years, but I get all the 60s jokes because I'm such a hardcore 60s rock music fan.

Besides, you know what they say: if you remember the 60s, then you weren't there.

[CC]

I was born in 1972. Missed the 60s by two years, but I get all the 60s jokes because I'm such a hardcore 60s rock music fan.

Ha! Good to know that I am not the oldest geezer around this forum, even if by a slim margin.

[Ken Cheng]

Ha! Good to know that I am not the oldest geezer around this forum, even if by a slim margin.

I think Ian Liew, Tazzy1972, and I are the official geezers of SPCNET.

I guess we should go sit up in a tree with soft whips like those Dao generation monks in HSDS.

[Tazzy1972]

seriously are we 3 the oldest??

now abt sitting up in the tree, count me out as i am too old to climb the tree to sit there in the 1st place

[JamesG]

As far as 'geezers' go, you guys aren't even close.

[Daishikaze]

Stupid White Guy question, What are Mooncakes? I saw them in a movie but I don't know what they are exactly

[Ken Cheng]

Stupid White Guy question, What are Mooncakes? I saw them in a movie but I don't know what they are exactly

Every autumn, there's something called the Lunar Festival in many Asian cultures (particularly Chinese). The fifteenth day of the eighth month of the year (which typically falls in September, not August, as the Chinese calendar doesn't line up with the Gregorian calendar) is the day that the moon is perceived by be roundest in the sky...signifying midautumn (although by Western reckoning, it's often just a few weeks after summer ends).

Mooncakes are taro root and preserved duck egg filled pastries consumed during this festival. There is a popular legend that during the late Yuan Dynasty (when the Mongols ruled China), anti-government Chinese rebels used the cakes to send secret messages to one another undetected by the Yuan authorities.

[Daishikaze]

I see, Maybe someday I'll get to try one

[Ken Cheng]

I see, Maybe someday I'll get to try one

Is there a Chinatown in Geneva? If there's one with a sizeable Chinese population over there, they ought to have a whole bunch of them for bargain prices today (just like Christmas cards the day after Christmas).