Lessons from the Classic Mid-Autumn Stories at the Yuan Thong Temple

The Mid-Autumn “Mooncake” Festival, celebrated every 15th day of the 8th month, when the moon is at its roundest and brightest, which falls September 29 this year, was celebrated at the Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Yuan Thong Temple along (6th Road) Burgos Street, a bit earlier last September 24, 2023.

The thousand-year-old Chinese classic stories were narrated and staged. Virtues learned from these stories were likewise explained by a storyteller (this writer) which included the 13th century historical account of the Chinese “mooncake rebellion” against the oppressive Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

The undying and heartwarming thousand-year-old Chinese classic love story about the Moon Lady Chang E and her husband Hou Yi was turned into a musical and theatrically staged at the portals of the Yuan Thong Temple’s main “Guan Yin” sanctuary. It is this story re-told for more than two thousand years that transformed the ancient Chinese veneration of the moon into a festival characterized by the ancient practice of offering mooncakes to the moon as a means of good harvest thanksgiving. Families held reunions with mooncakes as the highlighted cuisine on their round-shaped dining tables. Round lanterns illuminated homes and the streets, a Chinese culture trademark symbolizing enlightenment, harmony, and family reunion. Thus, a separate lighting of the lanterns and a special prayer by Yuan Thong Temple’s abbey, Master Zrong Shih was “ceremonialized” at the Yuan Thong Temple’s entrance garden before the Musical was presented.

Titled “Over the Moon” the Musical, it was conceptualized and music directed by Rutha Rojo, choreographed by Emiljune Bantolo and Virnie Clarion, musically scored by Luis Alejandro Sacramento, directed by Milton Dionzon and the cast and characters of about 40 young graduates of the Temple’s “San Hao Saturday Drama Workshop”.

The story is about Hou Yi who was favored by the “Queen Mother of the Western Paradise” (The Jade Emperor’s wife, according to some stories) by giving him the elixir of eternal life because of his heroic destruction of the scorching “nine suns” leaving only one sun to warmly light the earth. He gave the elixir to his beautiful wife Chang E for safekeeping but was forcibly taken by a follower, Feng Meng. To secure the elixir from the wrong hands, Chang E sacrificially drank it whole resulting in her death and banishment to the moon forever. Sad and devastated, Hou Yi venerated the moon by offering mooncakes, so eagerly hoping that one day, Chang E would show up and they could be together.

The elixir of eternal life was actually concocted by the Jade Rabbit who likewise sacrificially offered himself as a meat to be eaten by the Jade Emperor, a Chinese principal deity, disguised as a miserable hungry old man here on earth. The Jade Emperor revived him, dressed him in glittering white jade, inspired him to concoct the elixir of eternal life, and sent him to the moon to keep Chang E company.

The Mid-Autumn Festival from the 10th century onwards were massively observed and, in time, said mooncakes played a strategic role in the Chinese rebellion against the oppressive Mongol Yuan Dynasty (13th century). Unable to organize because of strict prohibition against public assembly, the Chinese rebels sent secret messages inside mooncakes instead for public distribution. The strategy resulted into a successful uprising launched during the Monncake Festival. Henceforth, the eating of mooncakes took a different meaning, the succeeding Ming Dynasty founder and Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang reportedly commemorated the event by distributing mooncakes for public consumption, he being the initiator of said rebellion.

The 13th Century “mooncake uprising” against the Yuan Dynasty is a lesson in war tactics and strategy which was clever, original and inventive. The love of Chang E and Hou Yi and the Jade Rabbit stories, on the other hand, are stories of self-sacrifice, a rejected virtue of those who believed in “the justified selfishness”. They would ask, why sacrifice for those who are in need and for neighbors to benefit? These people forgot that self-sacrifice is not just a virtue but a power to stand for the family solidarity and survival which is a microcosm of the greater national survival.

It is very easy to do what is wrong and evil. The Filipino political culture is hounded by the ease of doing what is not right. It takes self-sacrifice, however, to reject evil and do what is good. These are the lessons learned from the Mid-Autumn Festival stories.* (Gil Alfredo B. Severino)