As one of the intangible cultural heritages in Beijing region, Tu’er Ye is a traditional Beijing art craft and is specifically served in the Mid-Autumn Festival. With the shape of a rabbit-man, Tu’er Ye is a type of clay figures having the head of a rabbit and the body of the human being. The origins of this image can be traced back to ancient traditions of moon worship which has existed for centuries.

In Chinese mythology, it is said that one year there was a severe plague wreaking havoc in Beijing, causing numerous death. The Goddess in the moon pities the folk and sent her jade rabbit to help people. The jade rabbit transformed itself into different human images such as a maiden, a young man and so on, helped and cured  people in Beijing city. Finally, with its help, Beijing was saved from this disaster. In order to appreciate and remember jade rabbit’s efforts, the people creates clay figurines with a rabbit head and human body and worshiped it during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Derived from the worship of the moon in ancient time, moon rabbit was gradually separated from the moon, and became individual sacrifice in rich images during moon sacrifice, since the Ming and Qing dynasties. With the evolution of time, Lord Rabbit is, nowadays, widely used for worship and amusement, and notably becomes the most representative intangible cultural heritage in Beijing.