small
year
Waxing Moon Twenty-Three
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The small year, which usually refers to the day of sweeping dust and offering sacrifices, is regarded as the beginning of a "busy year". Due to the different customs in the north and south, the days called "Little Year" are also different.
The concept and date of the "little year" varies from place to place, with the 23rd lunar month in the northern region and the 24th lunar month in most parts of the south. Folk tradition of the small year (dust sweeping, sacrifice stove day) is the twenty-fourth month of the Wax Moon, before the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the northern region is also the twenty-fourth small year of the Wax Moon, from the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the emperor's family held a ceremony on the twenty-third day of the Wax Moon, in order to "save money", by the way, the stove prince was also worshipped, so the people in the northern region also spent a day in advance on the twenty-third day of the Wax Moon for the small year.
The evolution of the word "year"
Speaking of this "year", the earliest see Yin Xu Bu Ci. The oracle bone glyph is "he" (grain ear full and drooping crops), and the lower is "person", the whole is like a person carrying the harvested grain, which belongs to the meaning of the word, meaning harvest of crops, "people" also next to the sound. There are often sayings in the buji that "ask for the year" and "receive the year", which means to pray for a good harvest.
Because the Shang Dynasty generally planted one crop a year and harvested only once a year, "year" was also extended to a time unit, that is, 12 months. There are statements such as "as for seven years" and "as for five years" in the bu circumscribes.
In the small seal, the word "person" is added a small "-" to become "thousand". After the seal book was transformed into a lishu, it was originally written as "秊". Therefore, the Eastern Han Dynasty Xu Shen's "Shuowen" explains that "Nian" (秊) says: "Nian, Gu Shuye." From the grass, a thousand voices". The first half of this explanation is correct, and the second half of the intercept says "a thousand voices" is wrong, which is actually "human voice".
From the original meaning and extended meaning of the word "nian", we can know that since the Shang Dynasty at the latest, China has been an agricultural country based on agriculture.
The word "nian" written by successive generations of scholars
The word "year" is taught
Calligraphers write for the "Little Year" festival
Tomorrow is the northern small year, Xu Xianwang invited the calligrapher Teacher Xin Zhidong to write for the "little year": "The window is clear and the spirit is refreshing, and the small year arrives happily." ”
I wish you all good health and all the best!
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