History of Mooncakes
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368, a dynasty ruled by the Mongols), the Han people’s army wanted to overthrow the rule of Mongols so they planned an uprising, but they had no way to inform every Han people who wanted to join them the time of the uprising without being discovered by the Mongols. One day, the military counselor of the Han people’s army, Liu Bowen, thought out a stratagem related to mooncakes. Liu Bowen asked his soldiers to spread the rumor that there would be a serious disease in winter and eating mooncakes was the only way to cure the disease, then he asked soldiers to write “uprising, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival” on slips of paper, put them into mooncakes and then sell them to common Han people. When the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival came a huge uprising broke out. From then on, people have eaten mooncakes every Mid-Autumn Festival to commemorate the uprising.
