The ancients attached great importance to "offering sacrifices to the moon"
In the book "Book of Rites and Moon Order", there is the earliest record about "Mid-Autumn Festival":
"The Mid-Autumn Moon is aging and eating porridge."
The Mid-Autumn Festival here refers to the second month of autumn, that is, the August of the lunar calendar.
In the Han Dynasty, people regarded Mid-Autumn Festival as a specific season.
It can be seen that as early as the Han Dynasty, the ancients had regarded the Mid-Autumn Festival as a special time node, drinking porridge to keep fit.
Like other traditional festivals, there are many myths and legends about the Mid-Autumn Festival, among which the most popular stories are "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon" and "Wu Gang cutting Guangxi".
"the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon" and "Wugang felling Guangxi"
As we all know, Chang 'e is the wife of Hou Yi. She had to swallow the elixir to save her life, so she flew to the moon. But WU GANG killed Sun Boling, the son of Emperor Yan, and was sent to the moon by Emperor Yan to cut down an immortal tree.
As for the relationship between WU GANG and Chang 'e, people also have different opinions. It is said that the two are loving couples; It is also said that WU GANG is just a humble lumberjack outside the Guanghan Palace; Even some film and television works have portrayed WU GANG as a villain who coveted Chang 'e's beauty.
Legend has it that Chang 'e and WU GANG are a loving couple.
But no matter what kind of statement, it is only a legend and adaptation with subjective consciousness, and there is no reliable historical data as evidence.
In fact, the story of "the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon" first appeared in an ancient book of Shang Dynasty-Gui Mei in Gui Zang:
"I used to steal the immortal medicine from the Queen Mother of the West and take it to the moon."
Returning to Tibet, Lianshan and Zhouyi are collectively called three meanings.
The "constant self" here is also called Heng E, which is the later Chang 'e.
In the book, Chang 'e is no longer the honest woman who flew to the moon palace to protect the elixir, but a thief who stole the elixir.
Similarly, there are similar records in the ancient book "Huainanzi Lanmingxun" in the Han Dynasty:
"I invited the Queen Mother of the West, a fairy medicine, to steal the moon. I was extremely disappointed and could not continue." Induce height; "Heng E, yi wife; Yi invited the elixir of life to the Queen Mother of the West, who refused to take it. Heng E stole the fairy and went to the middle of the month to be a moon essence. "
Liu An (179- 122) is the editor-in-chief of Huainanzi and the inventor of tofu.
It can be seen that the protagonists of the two stories, Chang 'e, are thieves who steal the elixir of life. It can be seen that the version of the elixir circulated in later generations is actually artistically processed.
Li Shangyin, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in the poem Chang 'e: Chang 'e should regret stealing Dan medicine.
The time of "Wugang felling laurel" appeared much later.
Duan, a famous mystery novelist in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his collection of short stories Youyang Za:
"As the old saying goes, there is a laurel tree in the month and a toad in the month. So different books say: the osmanthus tree is 500 feet high, and one person often squats, and the tree is made. Wu Minggang, a native of Xihe, studied immortals and ordered to cut down trees. "
Youyang zaju
The ancients said there were osmanthus trees and toads on the moon. Then, a strange book said: The osmanthus tree on the moon is very tall, and there is a man under the tree who cuts down the tree every day, but it will recover immediately after it is cut down. This man named WU GANG, a native of Xihe, was punished for cutting down osmanthus trees because he made a mistake in learning Xiandao.
This is also the earliest record of "Wugang cutting Guangxi".
Therefore, the two stories of the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon and Wu Gang's felling of Guangxi, one appeared in the Shang Dynasty and the other in the Tang Dynasty, were separated by nearly two thousand years. It is impossible for these two people to have any relationship and intersection.