What is a rabbit?

Rabbit is an ancient traditional toy in Beijing. Mr. Lao She described in "Four Generations under One Family": "There is no rouge on the face, only a thin line is drawn on the small mouth, which is red and oiled; Two slender white ears were painted with light red; In this way, the rabbit's face presents a handsome appearance, as if it were Huang Tianba in the rabbit. Its upper body is wearing a scarlet robe, and below its waist are green leaves and pink flowers. Every leaf fold and every petal is carefully dyed into a bright and even color, which makes the green leaves and safflower shine. "

It first appeared in the late Ming Dynasty and was used to worship the moon. Ming Jikun (born around 1636) wrote "The Remaining Draft of Kaoting": "The Mid-Autumn Festival in Beijing is mostly in the shape of mud rabbits, posing as people and being worshipped by children." The Chronicle of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty reads: "The city is rich in loess, a famous male prostitute, wearing a flowered robe and two or three feet tall."

The image of rabbit comes from the jade rabbit in the middle of the moon, but it is different. There is such a legend:

At that time, there was a plague in Beijing, and the Jade Rabbit came down to treat the disease, but because his whole body was white, no one was allowed to go in. She had to go to the temple and pretend to be a man to treat diseases from door to door. In order to hurry, she changed a lot of China animals, lions and tigers. When people finally saw her return to the Moon Palace, it suddenly dawned on them that in order to thank Jade Rabbit, she offered a statue of Grandpa Rabbit every Mid-Autumn Festival.

At the end of Qing Dynasty, Tsui Hark wrote in Qing Dynasty? The seasonal category said: "On the Mid-Autumn Festival, the capital used clay to mold the rabbit god, and the rabbit face was painted with gold mud. The giant is three or four feet tall and worth nearly ten thousand yuan. Your giant room is bought and returned, supported by fragrant flowers and cakes, and so is the ban. "

However, due to the custom of "men don't sacrifice the moon and women don't sacrifice the stove", children often imitate their mothers' sacrifices nearby, and rabbits slowly give them to the children for sacrifice, which later evolved into children's toys and produced many active images.

For example, it has been recorded in "Spring and Autumn Ming Feng Ji": "Its cavity is made, the upper lip is live, and the middle part is tied with thread. Pull the thread down and your lips will break. "

There is also a kind of male prostitute, commonly known as "eight mouths", whose elbows and jaws can move.

I'm from Beijing. My impression is that Grandpa Rabbit is still the dialect of old Beijing. It's hard to say exactly how to describe a person.