中秋节的历史 英语解说
中秋节的来历和习俗(中英对照)如下：
"Zhong Qiu Jie", which is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. It is a time for family members and loved ones to congregate and enjoy the full moon - an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck. Adults will usually indulge in fragrant mooncakes of many varieties with a good cup of piping hot Chinese tea, while the little ones run around with their brightly-lit lanterns.
农历八月十五日是中国的传统节日——中秋节。在这天，每个家庭都团聚在一起，一家人共同观赏象征丰裕、和谐和幸运的圆月。此时，大人们吃着美味的月饼，品着热腾腾的香茗，而孩子们则在一旁拉着兔子灯尽情玩耍。
"Zhong Qiu Jie" probably began as a harvest festival. The festival was later given a mythological flavour with legends of Chang-E, the beautiful lady in the moon.
中秋节最早可能是一个庆祝丰收的节日。后来，月宫里美丽的仙女嫦娥的神话故事赋予了它神话色彩。
According to Chinese mythology, the earth once had 10 suns circling over it. One day, all 10 suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved when a strong archer, Hou Yi, succeeded in shooting down 9 of the suns. Yi stole the elixir of life to save the people from his tyrannical rule, but his wife, Chang-E drank it. Thus started the legend of the lady in the moon to whom young Chinese girls would pray at the Mid-Autumn Festival.
传说古时候，天空曾有10个太阳。一天，这10个太阳同时出现，酷热难挡。弓箭手后翌射下了其中9个太阳，拯救了地球上的生灵。他偷了长生不死药，却被妻子嫦娥偷偷喝下。此后，每年中秋月圆之时，少女们都要向月宫仙女嫦娥祈福的传说便流传开来。
In the 14th century, the eating of mooncakes at "Zhong Qiu Jie" was given a new significance. The story goes that when Zhu Yuan Zhang was plotting to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty started by the Mongolians, the rebels hid their messages in the Mid-Autumn mooncakes. Zhong Qiu Jie is hence also a commemoration of the overthrow of the Mongolians by the Han people.
在14世纪，中秋节吃月饼又被赋予了一层特殊的含义。传说在朱元璋带兵起义推翻元朝时，将士们曾把联络信藏在月饼里。因此，中秋节后来也成为汉人推翻蒙古人统治的纪念日。
During the Yuan Dynasty (A.D.1206-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung Dynasty (A.D.960-1279) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule, and set how to coordinate the rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Packed into each mooncake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this event.
在元朝，蒙古人统治中国。前朝统治者们不甘心政权落入外族之手，于是密谋策划联合起义。正值中秋将近，起义首领就命令部下制作一种特别的月饼，把起义计划藏在每个月饼里。到中秋那天，起义军获取胜利，推翻了元朝，建立明朝。今天，人们吃月饼纪念此事。
The legend of the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节的传说 Mooncakes are to Mid-Autumn Festival what mince pies are to Christmas. The seasonal round cakes traditionally have a sweet filling of lotus seed paste or red bean paste and often have one or more salted duck eggs in the center to represent the moon. And the moon is what this celebration is all about. Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th month, it is the time when the moon is said to be at its brightest and fullest. This year the festival falls on October 1. 中秋节吃月饼就像西方人圣诞节吃百果馅饼一样，是必不可少的。圆圆的月饼中通常包有香甜的莲子馅或是红豆馅，馅的中央还会加上一个金黄的咸鸭蛋黄来代表月亮。而月亮正是中秋节庆祝的主题。每年农历8月15日人们一起庆祝中秋，据说这一天的月亮是一年中最亮最圆的。今年的中秋节恰好是阳历的10月1日（中国的国庆日）。 There are two legends which claim to explain the tradition of eating mooncakes. 关于吃月饼这个传统的来历有两个传说。 One Tang Dynasty myth holds that the Earth once had 10 suns circling it. One day all 10 suns appeared at once, scorching the planet with their heat. It was thanks to a skillful archer named Hou Yi that the Earth was saved. He shot down all but one of the suns. As his reward, the Heavenly Queen Mother gave Hou Yi the Elixir of Immortality, but she warned him that he must use it wisely. Hou Yi ignored her advice and, corrupted by fame and fortune, became a tyrannical leader. Chang-Er, his beautiful wife, could no longer stand by and watch him abuse his power so she stole his Elixir and fled to the moon to escape his angry wrath. And thus began the legend of the beautiful woman in the moon, the Moon Fairy. 一个是唐朝的神话故事，说的是当时地球被10个太阳包围着。有一天10个太阳同时出现在天空中，巨大的热量几乎把地球烤焦了。多亏一位名叫后羿的神箭手射下了9个太阳，地球才被保住。为了奖励后羿，王母娘娘赐给后羿一种长生不老药，但是王母警告他必须正当使用。然而后羿没有理会王母娘娘的警告，他被名利冲昏了头脑，变成了一个暴君。后羿美丽的妻子嫦娥对他的暴行再也不能袖手旁观，于是她偷走了后羿的长生不老药，飞到月亮上逃避后羿的狂怒。从此就有了关于月宫仙子嫦娥，这个月亮上的美丽女人的传说。 The second legend has it that during the Yuan Dynasty, an underground group led by Zhu Yuan Zang was determined to rid the country of Mongolian dominance. The moon cake was created to carry a secret message. When the cake was opened and the message read, an uprising was unleashed which successfully routed the Mongolians. It happened at the time of the full moon, which, some say, explains why mooncakes are eaten at this time. 第二个传说讲的是在元朝，朱元璋领导的起义军计划起义来摆脱蒙古族的统治。他们用月饼来传递密信。掰开月饼就可以找到里面的密信，起义军通过这种方式成功的发动了起义，赶走了元朝的统治者。这场起义发生在八月十五之时，于是中秋节吃月饼的习俗便在民间传开来。
Celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival isstrongly associated with the legend of Houyi, his student Feng Meng, and
Chang'e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality. Tradition places these two figures
from Chinese mythology at around 2200 BCE, during the reign of the legendary
Emperor Yao, shortly after that of Huangdi. Unlike many lunar deities in other
cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e simply lives on the moon but is not
the moon herself.
There are many variants and adaptations of
the legend of Chang'e that frequently contradict each other. However, most
versions of the legend involve some variation of the following elements: Houyi,
the Archer, an emperor, either benevolent or malevolent, and an elixir of life.
One version of the legend states that Houyi
was an immortal and Chang'e was a beautiful young girl, working in the palace
of the Jade Emperor (the Emperor of Heaven, 玉帝 pinyin:Yùdì) as an
attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (the Jade Emperor's wife). Houyi
aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the
Jade Emperor. Houyi and his wife, Chang'e, were subsequently banished from
heaven. They were forced to live on Earth. Houyi had to hunt to survive and
became a skilled and famous archer.
At that time, there were ten suns, in the
form of three-legged birds, residing in a mulberry tree in the eastern sea.
Each day one of the sun birds would have to travel around the world on a
carriage, driven by Xihe, the 'mother' of the suns. One day, all ten of the
suns circled together, causing the Earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of
China, commanded Houyi to use his archery skill to shoot down all but one of
the suns. Upon completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Houyi with a pill
that granted eternal life. Emperor Yao advised Houyi not to swallow the pill
immediately but instead to prepare himself by praying and fasting for a year
before taking it.Houyi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter. One day,
Houyi was summoned away again by Emperor Yao. During her husband's absence,
Chang'e, noticed a white beam of light beckoning from the rafters, and
discovered the pill. Chang'e swallowed it and immediately found that she could
fly. Houyi returned home, realizing what had happened he began to reprimand his
wife. Chang'e escaped by flying out the window into the sky.
Houyi pursued her halfway across the
heavens but was forced to return to Earth because of strong winds. Chang'e
reached the moon, where she coughed up part of the pill. Chang'e commanded the
hare that lived on the moon to make another pill. Chang'e would then be able to
return to Earth and her husband.
The legend states that the hare is still
pounding herbs, trying to make the pill. Houyi built himself a palace in the
sun, representing "Yang" (the male principle), in contrast to
Chang'e's home on the moon which represents "[Yin and Yang]" (the
female principle). Once a year, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Houyi
visits his wife. That is the reason why the moon is very full and beautiful on
that night.
This description appears in written form in
two Western Han dynasty (206 BC-24 AD) collections; Shan Hai Jing, the Classic
of the Mountains and Seas and Huainanzi, a philosophical classic.
Another version of the legend, similar to
the one above, differs in saying that Chang'e swallowed the pill of immortality
because Peng, one of Houyi's many apprentice archers, tried to force her to
give the pill to him. Knowing that she could not fight off Peng, Chang'e had no
choice but to swallow the pill herself.
Other versions say that Houyi and Chang'e
were still immortals living in heaven at the time that Houyi killed nine of the
suns. The sun birds were the sons of the Jade Emperor, who punished Houyi and
Chang'e by forcing them to live on Earth as mortals. Seeing that Chang'e felt
extremely miserable over her loss of immortality, Houyi decided to find the
pill that would restore it. At the end of his quest, he met the Queen Mother of
the West, who agreed to give him the pill, but warned him that each person
would only need half a pill to regain immortality. Houyi brought the pill home
and stored it in a case. He warned Chang'e not to open the case, and then left
home for a while. Like Pandora in Greek mythology, Chang'e became curious. She
opened up the case and found the pill, just as Houyi was returning home.
Nervous that Houyi would catch her, discovering the contents of the case, she
accidentally swallowed the entire pill, and started to float into the sky
because of the overdose.
Some versions of the legend do not refer to
Houyi or Chang'e as having previously been immortals and initially present them
as mortals instead.
There are also versions of the story in
which Houyi was made king as a reward for killing nine of the suns and saving
the people. However, King Houyi became a despot who either stole a pill of
immortality from the Queen Mother of the West or learned that he could make
such a pill by grinding up the body of a different adolescent boy every night
for a hundred nights. Chang'e stole the pill and swallowed it herself, either
to stop more boys being killed or to prevent her husband's tyrannical rule from
lasting forever.
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