Three or two branches of peach blossoms outside the bamboo, spring river plumbing duck prophet. When the "Winter Nine-Nine" ends, the spring is warm and picturesque.
Infographic: Flocks of birds cruising and frolicking in the water. Photo by Fu Jianbin
Nineteen twenty-nine does not shoot, three-nine-nine-nine ice walks. Every winter, you can often hear the "nine nine cold song", which is also the childhood memory of many people, and the winter nine nine is often called "number nine", generally counting from the winter solstice
It is called "nine", and every 9 days thereafter it is a unit called "nine".
With the passage of time, after 9 "nines", adding up to 81 days, it is called "nine out", ushering in the spring and warm blossom season.
Interestingly, there are winter nine nines and summer nine nines, but the latter is not widely circulated.
Infographic: Snowflakes look like white elves. Photo by Ye Rong
Folk have the custom of "counting nine"
Wang Juan, a folklore expert, said that "counting nine" is not a solar term, but can be counted as a timekeeping method invented by the ancients. There is no accurate account of when the nine-digit custom originated, but according to ancient records, it is mentioned in the Jingchu Chronicle
"The number of winter solstice days and 9981 days is used as the end of the cold".
Some people are also curious, why is it that the number "nine" instead of the number "two" and "eight" and so on?
There is a saying that in traditional Chinese culture, "nine" is the number of "to the yang" and the number of the greatest. The accumulation of the "number of yangs" means that the yin qi gradually decreases, and the tiredness of nine times has reached the end, which means that the cold has gone to the warm.
Infographic: Kites fly among flowers. Photo by Deng Xiaoqiang
Why is there a custom of "counting nine" in winter?
Wang Juan analyzed that perhaps because the ancient heating conditions were relatively backward, the cold winter had a great threat to survival, and people hoped that it would soon pass. And in the agrarian society, there was not much agricultural work after entering the winter, and the ancients invented the "number nine" timing method
As well as some recreational activities to pass the time.
Data chart: Wuxi plum garden has rich plum blossom variety resources. Photo by Sun Quan
For example, the "Nine-Nine Cold Song", which rhymes with the recitation. Due to the phenology of different regions, its content may vary.
It is said that in some places in the Ming Dynasty, the custom of "painting nine" appeared. The so-called painting is actually a diagram that calculates the warm date of spring after the winter solstice.
Infographic: Steam train traveling between the sea of rape flowers. Photo by Liu Zhongjun
With the end of "number nine", the spring is warm, and the flowers are competing for beauty, which is a beautiful scenery in spring.
The plan of the year lies in the spring, have you planned for yourself?
(China News Network Author: Shangguan Yun)