The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th
month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
For centuries, the Mid-Autumn Festival has encouraged family reunions, big
feasts and enjoyment of a beautiful full moon. But for people in Xiamen, their
exciting games have just started. A special custom “Moon-cake Gambling” will
take place in every Mid-autumn Festival.
You find a pack of six dice inside after opening every gaudily decorated box of
mooncakes.
Gambling? Right, but it is definitely legal. Because the stakes among the
locals are mooncakes - and that is how this unique celebrating activity has got
its Chinese name "Bo Bing." It is played only around the Mid-Autumn
Festival.
Easy to play though, the games have quite complicated rules hard to remember.
So it is thoughtful for some mooncake manufacturers to print the rules on the
package.
All the "Bo Bing" game requires are six dice and a china bowl. Just
throw the dice into the bowl - and the different pips you get stand for
different ranks of awards you will win.
When walking along streets in this tiny island during this time, you will hear
the pleasant silvery sound of the dice rolling. Cheers of winning or loss are
everywhere.
The 300-year-old custom of mooncake gambling dates back to the Qing Dynasty
(1644-1911). The inventor, Zheng Chenggong (1624-62), a general of the Ming
Dynasty (1368-1644), stationed his army in Xiamen. Zheng was determined to
recover Taiwan, which was occupied by Dutch invaders since 1624.
When every Mid-Autumn Festival came, the soldiers naturally missed their
families but fought with heroical determination to drive off the aggressors.
General Zheng and his lower officer Hong Xu invented mooncake gambling to help
relieve homesickness among the troops.
The gambling game has six ranks of awards, which are named as the winners in
ancient imperial examinations, and has 63 different sized mooncakes as prizes.
From the lowest to the highest, the titles of six ranks are Xiucai (the one who
passed the examination at the county level), Juren (a successful candidate at
the provincial level), Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial
examination), Tanhua, Bangyan and Zhuangyuan (respectively the number three to
number one winners in the imperial examination at the presence of the emperor).
Game players throw the dice by turns. Different pips they count win the player
a relevant "title" and corresponding type of mooncakes.
The lucky player who gets the pips to make it the title of
"Zhuangyuan," will be the biggest winner in the game, and gain the
largest mooncake. In ancient China, to win the imperial examination was the
only way to enter an official career which was the dream of most learners,
since the examination system was established in the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618).
No wonder then, if a person won "Zhuangyuan" through the imperial
examination, the success would bring great honour to both him and his family,
with a high-level position and a great sum of money.
The game has something to do with the number "four." In mooncake
gambling, the pips for most ranks of the awards are related to this number.
For instance, one die of four pips wins you "Xiucai" and the smallest
mooncake. And if you get four or more dice of four pips, then congratulations -
you win "Zhuangyuan."
The game provides 32 mooncakes for "Xiucai," 16 for "Juren"
and the rest may be deduced by analogy. Only one player will win the lucky
title "Zhuangyuan." That is why a total of 63 mooncakes are prepared
for the game.
As a game well combining culture, folk custom and recreation, moon cake
gambling soon got popular among troops.
So General Zheng approved of the soldiers playing the game in turn from the
13th to the 18th of the 8th month around the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Since then, "Bo Bing" has become a popular traditional activity among
local people. On every Mid-Autumn Festival, family members gather to gamble
mooncakes, deep in arguments about who will be the winner.
Also cake confectioneries will produce many kinds of gambling cakes to cater to
the market.
Xiamen people believe that the person who wins "Zhuangyuan" in the
game, will have good luck that year. And the Mid-Autumn Festival is the second
important holiday in Xiamen besides Spring Festival.
Nowadays, the mooncakes are not the only kind of award. With the upgrade of
people's living standards, daily necessities, household appliances and even
money can also be won.
What's more, people add funny rules. If the dice read "six," then
forget all those boring ranks. Turn off all the lights, and then seize as many
prizes as possible in the darkness. It is a combination of good memory, high
speed and a strong body.
Changes of prizes has made the game even popular among younger generations.