Great Cold And Solar Terms
It's cold today. The "Three Rites of Righteousness" says: "The yin qi comes out of the place, the cold is on the top, and the cold is reversed, so it is called the great cold." "The Great Cold is the last of the twenty-four solar terms, and although it does not have obvious nodal properties like the summer and winter solstices, it is a turning solar term. No pole Tai lai, winter and spring, cold to the extreme, that is, the time when warmth is coming. Once the great cold has passed, it will be the end of another cycle of reincarnation, and the earth will also return to spring, which is the so-called "spring aquatic life in the depths of the ice". At the same time, the great cold festival is usually in the lunar month, and it is very close to the New Year, "the winter cold is always exhausted, when the wanderer returns to his hometown.". Therefore, although from the name point of view, the great cold is somewhat daunting, in fact, it not only contains the expectation of the beginning of the Yang Spring, but also the good wish for family reunion, which is a festival full of warmth and joy.
Big Chill Memory
The winter morning in the north is thoroughly cold. But it's still pleasant if you don't have to go out. The fire is booming, the belly teapot is burning to make a cheerful whistle, the steam is filled with sunlight, and the old cat is flattened in Kangtou enjoying the warm sun, everything is warm and beautiful. The mother ended the busyness, tore off a calendar, and said to herself: "Little cold and big cold, one year is over." Immediately picked up the kettle and brewed a jar of tea, the tea leaves tumbled and stretched, and the tea aroma also overflowed, which was the aroma of jasmine. Grandma looked at the tea leaves in the jar, looked out the window again, and said, "There are guests coming." According to the old people, if there is a tea stem suspended vertically in the cup when brewing tea, it is a sign that the guest is coming, and this statement is often fulfilled.
However, until dark, no guests came. The guest did not arrive, but there was a letter. My father came back from work and handed me and my sister a card. Under the lamp, it is a postcard, on the front is a beautiful but unknown floral pattern, on the back there is a red triangle, black circle 2 stamps and a few lines of lead printed text: "Yanqing, Yandong Hello, on the occasion of the arrival of the New Year, I wish you a happy new year on the front line of Laoshan Mountain, study hard, and work up every day." ——Your comrade-in-arms Liu XX". Yan Qing Yandong is my sister's name and mine, when my sister read these words aloud, we were all very excited, it was the first time we knew the postcard, the first time we saw our name printed in lead, the first time we received a letter from afar, and called us "comrades-in-arms"! It was the midwinter of January 1988, when comrades from my father's old army were stationed on the Lao Shan front on the Border between China and Vietnam. In that era when communication was extremely underdeveloped, this letter did not know what kind of tossing and turning it took to reach us, and at that time, we did not know what it meant to be stationed on Laoshan. In the evening, written by my sister, my father instructed us to write a reply to our comrade-in-arms, and hoped that this letter would also send greetings and warmth to the comrade-in-arms stationed on the frontier, but I did not know whether he received it later, and he did not have the opportunity to see this comrade-in-arms uncle after that. But that postcard was deeply imprinted in my mind, giving that harsh winter a different kind of warmth.
In the winter of 1999, I enlisted in the army and served in a certain unit of the Armed Police in Shanxi. The three-month transformation of the recruit company from local youth to military personnel is also the most arduous and unforgettable experience of every soldier. In those cold and difficult days, in addition to the teachings of the leaders of the troops, the most encouraging and warm thing was a letter from home. To this day, my bookcase still holds more than a hundred letters from relatives and friends from high school to Tigan, and I smooth them out one by one and bind them in a classified manner when I have free time. When I looked at it by chance, I was inexplicably moved. Relatives, friends, lovers, that letter after letter, is no different from an emotional savings card, recording the joys and sorrows of youth and the footprints of growth, every time you touch, you seem to be able to feel the temperature of the years...
Big Chill Poetry
Dealing with the cold festival at the beginning and end of the year, the literati naturally have a fondness for it, and use poetry to feel the lyricism.
"Aria 24 Qi Poems: The Great Cold Mid-December"
Don Yuanshu
The wine is self-contained, and the golden furnace beast is warm.
The cold should be close to the fire, and nothing should be opened.
Winter and spring alternate, stars and moons survive?
The Ming Dynasty changed the new law, and MeiLiu waited for YangChun.
The snow was originally a spring place, cold and warm alternate, the years cycle, although it was cold enough to open the door, but it was already a sunny spring can be expected.
Big Chill
Song Shao Yong
The old snow has not yet subsided, and the new snow has been crowded.
Frozen silver bed in front of the steps, ice stalactites at the eaves.
The sun is shining, and the wind is raging.
The population has its own tongue, and the words cannot be spit out.
This Mr. Shao Yong is not very famous in writing poetry, and the above poem is also very vernacular, but he was a very good philosopher in the Northern Song Dynasty, who studied the I Ching very deeply, and was even a great prophet, and the "Plum Blossom Poem" he wrote is said to be a prediction of future generations.
The great cold out of the West Gate of Gangneung
Song Lu you
Ping Ming horse out of the west gate, light sun cold clouds for a long time spitting.
Drunken face rushing wind is easy to wake up, heavy qiu hides his hand to take a slight warmth.
Foxes and rabbits threw deep recklessness, and dotted cattle and sheep scattered far away from the village.
Do not feel more for the mountains and rivers, the poor wanderer of the years will dissipate his soul.
Lu You is worthy of everyone, extraordinary shots, and the weather is endless. Swallowing clouds and spitting out the sun is like a large-scale Chinese painting, a little bit of cattle and sheep is like a meticulous brush, and the last sentence of the poor wanderer is even more written with that wisp of nostalgia.
Great Cold And Three Waits
The story given by the ancients to the great cold festival is: one waiting for chicken milk, two waiting for birds to be sick, and three waiting for water to be strong. That is to say, at the beginning of the great cold season, the hen can hatch the chicks; then the birds of prey, such as the falcon, will be in a state of extreme predatory ability; in the last five days of the year, the ice in the water will freeze until the center of the water and is very thick.
The twenty-four flower trade winds we talked about before, in the cold there are also "three waits" with flowers as the object, namely: one waiting for Ruixiang, two waiting for orchids, and three waiting for alum. My mentor and friend Mr. Li Jilong gave Danqing the flower letter of the Great Cold Three Seasons before the arrival of the Great Cold Festival, and shared it here.
Mr. Li Jilong's three great cold weather: Ruixiang, orchid, alum
Great Han Folklore
Because the great cold is usually around the beginning and after the big cold, after entering the big cold, the taste of the year is getting stronger, and the folk customs in this festival are often connected with the new year customs, such as worshiping the gods, sweeping dust, cutting window flowers, writing spring unions, etc. In terms of diet, the ancients had the saying that "the great cold is cold, the wind is cold, the early drink of astragalus ginseng wine, the evening service of the yellow pill of qijudi", it can be seen that the cold is still a good time for winter supplementation, and it is advisable to warm food in the diet.
Time is like a flow, the years do not live, the great cold is coming, the spring is coming, the transformation of the four hours is like this end to end, endless reincarnation...