Li Chun: Everything is about to come to life

Hubei Daily all-media reporter Wang Jing Wang Tong correspondent Huang Chaofen

Editor's Note

In order to carry forward the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, from now on, this newspaper has set up a column entitled "Our Twenty-Four Solar Terms" to introduce the changing remnants of each solar term and feel the long-standing cultural connotation and historical accumulation of the Chinese nation contained in it.

On February 4, the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, it also ushered in the first festival of the 24 solar terms in 2022 - Lichun. Hubei Daily all-media reporters interviewed Xu Shaozhou, associate professor of Wuhan University, and Chen Mo, director of the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Technology of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and asked them to talk about Lichun.

Li Chun is the first of the twenty-four solar terms

Li Chun is the first of the twenty-four solar terms. Standing means "beginning"; spring represents warmth and growth. In nature, the most significant feature of Lichun is that everything is beginning to show signs of recovery, at this time it is still cold in spring, but the cold winter is over, and nature is about to flourish. Xu Shaozhou said, so the ancients attached importance to Lichun, and in ancient times there was a ceremony to welcome spring.

The twenty-four solar terms are the product of the ancient agricultural civilization, and it occupies an extremely important position in the traditional farming society of the mainland. Xu Shaozhou introduced, from some literature we can see that before the Qin and Han Dynasties, the first rites of some places were not the first lunar month of the lunar calendar (the first day of the first lunar month), but the lichun of the twenty-four solar terms of the dry branch calendar. Xu Shaozhou said that the first day of the Spring Festival is of great significance to the traditional farming society, and the major celebrations such as worshiping the gods and ancestors, praying for blessings, driving away evil spirits and disasters, removing the old cloth and the new cloth, and greeting the new year are all arranged to be held on the first festival of the Lichun Day and its period before and after, and this series of festivals not only constitutes the framework of the first festival of the future years, but also its folk function has been preserved to this day.

The Wisdom of Labor in the Lichun Agricultural Proverb

The most closely related to the solar terms is agriculture. The proverb of the festival is an accurate summary of people's experience in different agricultural activities in long-term agricultural labor, with only a few words, highly summarized, and catchy.

For example, "Lichun rain arrives, get up early and go to bed late", which means that after Lichun, the day gradually increases, the temperature slowly rises, and the soil begins to thaw from the lower layer, during which there is still a strong cold wave. Agricultural production still needs to prevent the adverse effects of low temperatures and rainy and snowy weather, pay close attention to the field management of wintering crops, and do a good job in preventing frost and seedlings and protecting livestock from cold and warmth.

For example, "Li Chun is sunny, the rain is even; the day of Li Chun is rainy, and the yin is wet and wet to the clear", which means that if the weather is sunny on the day of Li Chun, it means that the wind and rain will be smooth in the year. On the contrary, it rained on the same day, and then there was more rain, which lasted until around the Qingming Dynasty. "Thunder strikes the Spring Festival, and the sting rain does not stop" means that if the spring thunders on the day, the period of time that lasts until the sting festival will be dominated by rainy weather. "Li Chun hit the frost, when the spring will rot the seedlings" means that if there is frost on the day of li chun, there may be spring cold in the later stage, which will freeze the seedlings, which is not good for the spring crops.

Chen Mo said that the solar terms and agricultural proverbs have obvious regionality, and the results shown in different regions may be different, and they cannot be blindly believed, but they cannot be completely denied. In today's advocacy of scientific farming, climate has always been an important determinant of agricultural production. We must take the essence of its essence and remove its dross, scientifically learn from the solar terms of agricultural proverbs, pay attention to the reminders of the agricultural department and the meteorological department in advance, do a good job in preparing for spring ploughing, and let the ancient wisdom come alive.

(Hubei Daily)