(Things ask) Short comment: The big cold meets Ruixue, why is the solar term accurate?
China News Service, Beijing, January 20 Title: When the cold meets Ruixue, why is the solar term accurate?
China News Service reporter Ma Haiyan
On January 20th, the eighteenth day of the lunar month, the great cold festival, a snow fell from the sky. There is a Chinese folk proverb "Great Cold Three White Fixed Feng Year", which means that the great cold snows, and the Ruixue Mega Year.
Xiao Fang, director of the Folklore Department of Beijing Normal University, told the China News Agency that as the last of the twenty-four solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar, "small cold and big cold, cold into a clump", the weather is cold, and the snow is normal. From the perspective of agricultural production, heavy snow can kill insect eggs in the field and provide moisture for crops, so the cold snow indicates that the wind and rain will be smooth and the grain will be abundant in the coming year. Folk also have a saying that "there is no snow in the small cold, and the field cracks in the summer", which is also the impact of the weather on agriculture.
On January 20, during the cold season, Beijing ushered in the first snowfall of 2022. The picture shows tourists taking photos in Jingshan Park. China News Service reporter Jia Tianyong photographed
After the great cold is the spring, China has the custom of "welcoming the new year with the great cold". People have to prepare for the New Year, busy with New Year goods, removing old cloth and new cloth, and worshipping ancestors. Whether it's preparing various sacrificial offerings or storing food at home, marinated bacon and sausages are essential in many places. In the era of no refrigerator, these wax products need to be stored in very cold weather, so heavy cold snowfall is also conducive to people to store food.
"In fact, not only the cold is very accurate in encountering snow, but also the rain before and after the Qingming Dynasty, the cooling of the autumn season, and the snowfall after the sting, etc., China's twenty-four solar terms are very accurate." Xiao Fang said that China's twenty-four solar terms, which are based on ancient agricultural civilizations, have their scientific basis.
In the summer season, farmers in various places rushed to grasp the agricultural time, busy with field management and protection, summer harvest and summer planting, and agricultural production entered a busy season. The picture shows a busy scene in the farmland of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences in the Xiahe area of Yangzhou City. Photo by Meng Delong, China News Service
Why are the twenty-four solar terms so accurate? First, this is a summary of the experience of the ancient Chinese in adapting to the time of day and carrying out agricultural production. For more than two thousand years, the twenty-four solar terms have guided people in the land of China, especially in the Yellow River Basin, to cultivate in spring and summer, harvest in autumn and tibet in winter, and there is almost no mistake.
Second, the twenty-four solar terms are associated with the advanced astronomical calendar of ancient China. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the ancient Chinese people could use Tugui to measure the length of the noonday sun shadow to determine the four solar terms of winter solstice, summer solstice, spring equinox and autumn equinox. The Taichu Calendar, formulated in 104 BC, incorporated the twenty-four solar terms into the calendar and clarified the astronomical position of the twenty-four solar terms.
On August 8, 2019, in Yaogong Community, Hefei City, Anhui Province, children ate watermelon to "nibble autumn". That day is the "liqiu" of the twenty-four solar terms, and the folk are known as the custom of "nibbling autumn". China News Service reporter Han Suyuan photographed
Xiao Fang said that during the Qin and Han Dynasties, a complete concept of twenty-four solar terms had been formed, and the year was divided into twelve months, and each month had two solar terms, and the formation of catchy songs and ballads had to be in modern times. "Spring rain shocks spring valley days, summer is full of mango and summer and summer are connected, autumn dew and autumn frost falls, winter snow and snow and winter are small and cold", today's primary school students will carry, which also shows the lasting vitality of the twenty-four solar terms.
The twenty-four solar terms also influenced the cultural concepts and living customs of Chinese. Such as Lichun, Winter Solstice, Qingming, etc. are not only natural festivals, but also important folk festivals. Lichun is the Spring Festival, the winter solstice to eat dumplings, Qingming sacrifices, these customs continue to this day.
On December 21, 2021, kindergarten children in xianju county, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, learned to make dumplings under the guidance of teachers to welcome the winter solstice. Photo by Hua Wenwu, China News Service
With the spread of the Chinese calendar, the twenty-four solar terms have also spread to many places such as the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and Japan still has a similar expression to the twenty-four solar terms. In November 2016, the "Twenty-Four Solar Terms – A System of Time Knowledge and Its Practice Formed by the Chinese by Observing the Annual Movement of the Sun" was officially inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
"The twenty-four solar terms embody Chinese's advanced understanding of the natural world and the wisdom of living in harmony with nature, and still have important cultural significance and social functions in the lives of contemporary Chinese, and are also vivid witnesses and practices of human cultural diversity." Xiao Fang said. (End)