Liu Bowen's "Shaobing Game": The Eternal Mystery Calculated from a Single Cake

One day during the Hongwu era, Zhu Yuanzhang was nibbling on a sesame seed cake in the inner palace. No sooner had he taken a bite than a eunuch trotted in to report: "Liu Ji, also known as Liu Bowen, requests an audience." Old Zhu rolled his eyes, then casually grabbed a bowl and covered the half-bitten sesame cake with it—everyone said old Liu was a master of divination and calculation, so today he would put him to the test.
Hardly had Liu Bowen finished saluting when Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at the bowl and smiled: "Sir, you have a deep understanding of numerology and prophecy. Do you know what is inside the bowl?" Old Liu stroked his beard, twirled his fingers as if calculating, and slowly uttered a line: "Half like the sun, half like the moon; once bitten by a golden dragon, it bears a nick." When the bowl was lifted, sure enough, it was a sesame cake with a bite taken out of it.
Old Zhu was immediately convinced, and casually asked: "Then what of the fate of my Great Ming dynasty?" Liu Bowen let out a long sigh and spoke the line that later generations would mull over for centuries: "My dynasty shall last through ten thousand sons and ten thousand grandsons—why ask?" The words sounded like a compliment—meaning the empire would pass down for ten thousand generations—but Old Zhu was far too shrewd to miss the hidden meaning: ten thousand sons and ten thousand grandsons? Did that mean the dynasty would end with Chongzhen, the grandson of the Wanli Emperor?
What happened next is familiar to all: the ruler and his minister traded questions and answers, and string after string of coded ballads were compiled into the *Sesame Cake Song*. It covers everything from the Jingnan Campaign to the Tumu Crisis, from Wei Zhongxian's usurpation of power to Li Zicheng's entry into Beijing, even arranging Wu Sangui's opening of the pass and the Qing army's invasion with precise detail.
The most brilliant part is the wordplay inside. It says "eight thousand female ghosts disrupt the court order"—combining the characters for eight, thousand, female, and ghost forms the character "Wei", pointing directly at the grand eunuch Wei Zhongxian. There is also "a liao under wood, a knife above eye, a wu and a ding"—"liao" under "wood" makes "Li", "a knife above eye" makes "Zi", and "wu plus ding" makes "Cheng"; put together, it is Li Zicheng. Paired with the line "When osmanthus blooms, a hero rises; tearing down the Great Wall, he shows his loyalty", which alludes to Wu Sangui tearing down the Great Wall of the Ming to let the Qing troops enter, this series of clever allusions is enough to send a chill down one's spine.
However, the story is just for fun—if you take it too seriously, you have already lost. Search through the *History of Ming: Biography of Liu Ji*, through Liu Bowen's own *Collected Works of the Earl of Sincerity*, and even through the official Ming dynasty record *Veritable Records of Emperor Taizu of Ming*, and you will not find a single word about "asking about the dynasty's fate over a sesame cake". Liu Bowen died in the eighth year of the Hongwu era. At that time, Zhu Di was still honestly serving as the Prince of Yan in Beiping, and the Jingnan Campaign was not even a glimmer on the horizon. How could he have known about the later Yongle era, or that Yao Guangxiao would assist the Prince of Yan?
Put simply, the *Sesame Cake Song* is more like a collection of folk creations continuously "updated" through successive dynasties. Whenever a major event occurred in a dynasty, someone would weave it into coded riddles and attribute them to Liu Bowen. After all, old Liu was the "best spokesperson" for folk wisdom—much like how all good things are attributed to Academician Yuan Longping nowadays. What ordinary people are willing to believe in is never some supernatural power to predict the future, but the satisfying feeling that "a wise master has already seen through everything".
As for that half sesame cake in the inner palace back then—whether Zhu Yuanzhang really tested Liu Bowen, or it was just a plot device made up by later generations to flesh out the story—it no longer matters. After all, thanks to the clever wordplay and the masterful storytelling, this sesame cake covered by a bowl for centuries will continue to delight people for ages to come.