An Interesting Chinese Lesson

By Author: james toma
Total Articles: 85
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Now, more and more people take join to learn Chinese. Learning Chinese has become an international trend. During the summer months, many children will seize the opportunity to learn Chinese, and strive to enrich their knowledge and broaden their horizons. Learning Chinese is really a very meaningful and very interesting thing. Now, there are many online summer courses for kids. Today, I have an interesting Chinese lesson: Origin of Moon Cakes: The Revolt of Zhu Yuanzhang.

The traditional food of Mid-Autumn Festival is moon cake. Moon cakes are round, and this shape symbolizes reunion. It represents the desire of Chinese people to get together with family and friends.

It is said that the tradition of eating moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival began during the Yuan Dynasty. During that period, people in central China couldn’t endure the monstrous tyranny of the Yuan Dynasty (established by Mongolians). As a result, uprisings occurred on a regular basis. Eventually, Zhu Yuanzhang united the rebels and staged a revolt. However, it was very difficult for the different rebel groups to communicate due to the fact ...
... that they were constantly monitored by Yuan officials. In order to get around these restrictions, strategist Liu Bowen hatched a plan. He ordered his subordinates to conceal a secret message in some pancakes, which read “War on 15th August” and then sent the pancakes to each rebel group to inform them of the date to attack. On August 15th, all the rebels acted simultaneously, and the revolution progressed too rapidly to be suppressed. Soon, Xu Da (a general in Zhu Yuanzhang’s army) seized Dadu, the capital city of the Yuan dynasty, which meant victory for the rebels. Upon hearing the good news, Zhu Yuanzhang hastily ordered that a great number of pancakes, which had been used to deliver the secret messages that made the revolution possible, be made. He wanted them to be distributed among his soldiers in the coming Mid-Autumn Festival. Eventually, the custom of eating moon cake during the Mid-Autumn Festival spread over the whole nation. Since then, many variations of moon cake have been created, all of which will make a fine present during Mid-Autumn Festival. Finally, Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty and became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Although the Ming government was later overthrown by the Qing, people have continued to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mid-Autumn Festival is the characteristics of traditional Chinese festivals. If you want to know more about the traditional Chinese festivals, you should join the rank of learning Chinese. Now, we have some online summer courses for kids. This is a good opportunity to learn Chinese; I want the love Chinese friends to join us immediately. Do you want to take Chinese lesson online? Are you eager to learn Chinese? Come and join us.

More materials in http://www.echineselearning.com/