Mooncake History
Moon cake and the Mongols
A popular Mid autumn moon cake festival (also known as Festival Mooncake/Festival Kue Bulan) legend claims that moon cakes were instrumental in the overthrow of the Mongol dynasty, 元朝, that ruled China from 1271–1368. Chinatownology locates this myth against the historical backdrop of the Mongol dynasty.
Mid Autumn version
Under the oppression of Mongol rule, a plan was devised to overthrow the Mongols. Messages were inserted into Autumn moon cakes so that families were informed of the rebellion. The message supposedly read “kill the Mongols on the 15th of 8th lunar month”.
Accordingly to the legend, people responded to the call and managed to drive the Mongols out of China and led to the founding of the Ming Dynasty, 明朝, in 1368.
Historical version
In 1271, the Mongols established the Mongol Dynasty or Yuan Dynasty, 元朝, and by 1279, defeated the Chinese Southern Song Dynasty, 南宋.
The Mongols introduced four social categories for their subjects. The top of the hierarchy were Mongols followed by Western and Central Asians, former subjects of the Jin Dynasty (including Chinese) and the bottom were the former subjects of the Southern Song Dynasty (mainly Chinese subjects).
The results of Mongolian economic policy such as tax farms and inflation as well as land management failures caused much hardship especially for those at the lower end of the hierarchy, the former subjects of the fallen Southern Song Dynasty.
Socially, there controls targeted at the Chinese population. Chinese subjects were not allowed to gather in public, could not own weapons. At one stage, Kublai Khan even forbade Chinese from using bamboos as it could be used to manufacture bows and arrows. There were certainly constrains in communication as well.
The various policies resulted in much resentment against the Mongol rulers and many Chinese scholars refused to serve the Mongol government. In less than one century, the Mongol rule over China weakened and various rebellion movements rose to challenge the dynasty.
By 1355, one of the rebels, Zhu Yuan Zhang, 朱元璋, emerged as the leader of the rebellion movement. In 1356, he captured Nanjing, 南京, and used it as his based to consolidate his power against other rebel groups. In 1367, Zhu Yuan Zhang sent troops north towards the capital of Yuan Dynasty (today’s Beijing).
On 14 September 1368 (2nd day of the 8th lunar month), Zhu Yuan Zhang’s troops entered the Mongol capital and the Mongol Emperor Toghun Temur retreated into Mongolia.
Zhu Yuan Zhang declared the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, 明朝, and made Nanjing the capital of his new dynasty.
Legend : http://www.chinatownology.com/mooncake_and_mongols.html