For centuries, the Mid-Autumn Festival has brought family reunions, big feasts and the enjoyment of a beautiful full moon.

But for people in Xiamen, it also means an exciting game of bobing, or mooncake gambling.

The stakes are mooncakes - pastries with bean or lotus seed fillings - of different size, each marked with the titles of six ranks in the ancient imperial examination.

Locals believe that becoming the big winner of the game will bring them good luck for the entire year.

Although it is easy to play, the game has quite complicated rules that are hard to remember. So some thoughtful mooncake makers print the rules on their packaging.

All the bobing game requires is six dice and a china bowl. Just throw the dice into the bowl - and the pips you get stand for different ranks.

When walking along streets on the island during this time, you will hear the pleasant silvery sound of the dice rolling. Cheers of winning or loss are everywhere.

The 300-year-old custom dates back hundreds of years.

The inventor, Zheng Chenggong (1624-62), a general of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), stationed his army in Xiamen. Zheng was determined to recover Taiwan, which had been occupied by Dutch invaders in 1624.

When the Mid-Autumn Festival came, his soldiers missed their families even more.

So General Zheng and his subordinate Hong Xu invented mooncake gambling to help perk up the troops.

Players throw the dice by turns. Different pips win the player a relevant "title" and corresponding type of mooncake.

The lucky player who makes it to Zhuangyuan - No 1 in the national ranking in the imperial examination and an audience with the emperor in real life - is the big winner and takes home the largest mooncake.

In ancient China, the imperial examination was the only path to an official career since the system was established in the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618).

If a person achieved the result of Zhuangyuan in the imperial examination, the success would bring great honor to both him and his family, followed with a high-level position and great fortune.

As a game combining culture, folk customs and recreation, mooncake gambling soon became popular among the troops.

Since then, bobing has become a popular traditional entertainment among local people. At every Mid-Autumn Festival, family members gather to gamble for mooncakes, deep in disputats about who will be the winner.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 10/29/2014 page9)