Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Shaobing Song

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Traditional Chinese
  
燒餅歌

Literal meaning
  
Jyutping
  
siu1 beng2 go1

Simplified Chinese
  
烧饼歌

Hanyu Pinyin
  
shao1 bing5 ge1

The “Shaobing Song” or the “Pancake Poem” is a poem purported to be written by Liu Bowen during the Ming dynasty. He supposedly presented the poem to the Hongwu Emperor.

Prophecy

The poem is named after the Chinese pastry shaobing. It is written in cryptic form and is difficult to understand. Some believe that certain lines contain references to the future of China at the time including:

  • 1449 Mongol invasion
  • Rise of Zheng He
  • Founding of the Qing dynasty
  • First Opium War
  • First Sino-Japanese War
  • 1911 founding of Republic of China
  • Most of the predictions since 1911 have been vague and inaccurate. This led some experts to believe the work is a hoax of recent production, designed to reassure people that all would be well when there was much unrest as a consequence of the Japanese invasion and the rise of communism.

    References

    Shaobing Song Wikipedia