What is a rabbit master ah

The Rabbit Master is an old traditional toy in Beijing, Mr. Lao She described it this way in "The Fourth Generation": "There is no rouge on the face, but only a thin line drawn on the small three-petal mouth, red, oiled; two long thin white ears are lightly traced with a bit of light red; in this way, the rabbit's face brings out a kind of handsome, as if it were a rabbit in the Huang Tianba. Its upper part was clothed in a vermilion robe, and from the waist downwards were bright green leaves and pink flowers, each leaf-fold and petal carefully tinted with a distinct and well-toned color, so that the green leaves and red flowers shone."

And it first appeared at the end of the Ming Dynasty, used to worship the moon, Ming Ji Kun (about 1636 around the time of the living) of the "Flower King Pavilion Remaining Manuscripts": "Beijing Mid-Autumn Festival more than to the mud Tuan rabbit-shaped, dressed and seated as a man, children worship and worship." Ming "Beijing years Hua Ji" contains: "the city to yellow clay Bo Cheng, said rabbit master, wearing a flower robe, two or three feet high."

Rabbit image from the moon in the Jade Rabbit but different, there is such a legend:

The late Qing Dynasty Xu Ke in the "Qing Barnyard Class 61 Seasonal Classes," said: "Mid-Autumn Festival, the capital city to clay rabbit God, rabbit face person, the face of the gold clay, body painting, giant three or four feet high, worth nearly ten thousand dollars. Noble huge room more buy back to the incense and flowers, cakes and fruits to feed, the ban is also."

But because of the custom of "men do not sacrifice the moon, women do not sacrifice the stove", children often in the evening to imitate their mothers sacrifice, the rabbit was slowly handed over to small children to sacrifice, and then later evolved into children's toys, and produced a lot of moving images.

For example, in the "Chunming Cai Feng Zhi" has documented that: "its system cavity, live on the upper lip, in the tie to the line. The lower pull its line, then the lips messy pounding."

In Beijing, there is also a kind of elbow and lower jaw can move the rabbit master, commonly known as "Ba da mouth".

During the Qing Dynasty, there were "rabbit masters" for sale in high-class stores in Beijing's Dong'an market, as well as in temple fairs and street stalls in busy areas. At that time, most of the Rabbit Masters were made of clay molds, and some of them were handmade. Except for the long ears on the top of the head and the three-petal mouth painted to look like a rabbit, the body, face, and posture of the rabbit were all human. In addition to a kind of gold armor and red robes originating from the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, sitting on the lotus pond of the orthodox type of rabbit master, the common rabbit masters are roughly divided into two types of opera roles and life type. The former are dressed in face paint and have a distinctive figure. The latter is more humanized, but also more social fashion, such as shaving master, or sewing shoes, selling wont, selling tea soup ...... social group phase has everything.

Nowadays, the rabbit has become a rarity. It can still be found in the craft stores in the factory, Houhai, and a few shopping malls. The Beijing Folklore Museum in Dongyue Temple has preserved a number of rabbit toys in various shapes and sizes. Although the popularity of such folk crafts is not what it used to be, there are still some young people and foreign tourists who are interested in this folk flavor.

In folklore, there is also a saying for the rabbit master's son, which refers to a young white man who has been adopted by a woman.