A short story about the origin of the twenty-four solar terms

A short story about the origin of the twenty-four solar terms

1. Beginning of Summer

The solar term of Beginning of Summer has been established in the late Warring States Period (239 BC), and it heralds the beginning of summer. The change of seasons is the beginning of summer among the four seasons of the year.

2. Xiaoman

At this time, the grains of summer crops such as wheat in northern areas of the country have begun to be full, but they are not yet mature, which is about the late stage of milk ripeness, so they are called Xiaoman.

3. Mangzhong

The word "awn" in Mangzhong refers to the harvest of awned plants such as wheat, and the word "Zhong" in Mangzhong refers to the sowing of millet crops. Seasons. The homophonic pronunciation of the word "awnzhong" indicates that all crops are being "busyly planted". Therefore, "Mang Zhong" is also called "Busy Zhong", and farmers also call it "Busy Zhong".

4. Summer Solstice

In the seventh century BC, our ancestors used Tugui to measure the shadow of the sun and determined the summer solstice. According to the "Kezunxiandu Manuscript": "When the sun reaches the north, the sun is long and the shadow is short, so it is called the summer solstice.

5. Xiaoshu

"Shu" means hot weather It means that the weather is starting to be hot, but it is not yet the hottest. Most parts of the country basically agree with it. Although minor heat is not the hottest season of the year, it is followed by major heat, which is the hottest season of the year. There is a folk saying. "Small heat and great heat are steamed at the top and boiled at the bottom."

6. Great heat

The "Collection of the Seventy-two Hours of the Moon Order" says: "The great heat is in the middle of June. Summer heat means heat, which is divided into big and small. The first month is small, the middle month is big, and now the heat is still big. "The climate characteristics are: "Dou Zhi C is the Great Heat, and the weather at this time is much more severe than the Little Heat, so it is called the Great Heat.

Note: During the Great Heat, in mid-June, the weather is hot. The heat is divided into large and small, with small at the beginning of the month and large in the middle of the month. When Douzhi reaches C, it is a Great Heat, which is hotter than a Little Heat, so it is called a Great Heat.

7. Beginning of Autumn

"Autumn" means the end of summer and the return of cool. At the beginning of autumn, the sycamore trees begin to lose their leaves, hence the idiom "falling leaves tell us about autumn". From a literal perspective, the word "Autumn" is composed of the characters for grain and fire, which means the grain is ripe. Autumn is a transitional season when the weather changes from hot to cool, and then from cool to cold.

8. End of Heat

End of Heat means "going out of heat", which means leaving the heat. The end of summer solar term means that autumn is about to enter the meteorological sense.

9. Bai Lu

It is said that Bai Lu was an imperial chef with extraordinary skills, unparalleled in the world, even the most picky emperor did not give a shit. One day, the emperor asked Bai Lu: "What is the most delicious thing in the world?" Bai Lu replied: "Salt!" The emperor originally wanted to show off the "delicacies from the mountains and seas" he had, but Bai Lu actually boasted that even ordinary people could see "Salt!" Salt". What makes salt "the best tasting"? To despise the imperial power is to "deceive the emperor"! The emperor killed Bai Lu in anger and informed the imperial kitchen that no salt should be used within seven days.

For seven consecutive days, the delicacies of mountains and seas became tasteless without salt. The more the emperor ate, the more he felt like vomiting, and then he realized that he had killed Bai Lu by mistake. The emperor felt so regretful that he wrote on the plain silk with his imperial pen the words "Wrongful execution of the dew for seven days and no daylight left". It happened that a minister came to see him. The emperor did not want others to know that he "regrets", so he burned the silk in a hurry. This burning happened to be accepted by the passing City God. The City God went to heaven to present it to the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor "accurately played it", so there was the "Bai Dew Festival" to commemorate the white dew.

10. Autumn Equinox

"Equinox" means the equinox of day and night. Just like the spring equinox, on this day the sun shines directly on the earth's equator, and day and night are equal. During the autumnal equinox, day and night are equally divided, with 12 hours each, in most parts of the earth. Near the North Pole and South Pole, the sun can be observed to be above the horizon all day long.

11. Cold Dew

"The Collection of the Seventy-Two Hours of the Moon Order" says: "On the September Festival, the dew will be cold and will condense."

Note: Cold dew means that the temperature is lower than that of white dew, and the dew on the ground is colder and is about to condense into frost.

12. Frost's Descent

The Frost's Descent solar term means that the weather is getting colder and the first frost appears. It is the last solar term in autumn and also means that winter is about to begin.

13. Beginning of Winter

In the Beginning of Winter, there is a custom of "giving cold clothes".

Every year on the first day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, it is the "Warm Clothes Festival". On this day, special emphasis is placed on paying homage to the deceased, which is called sending cold clothes. In order to prevent the ancestors from suffering from the cold in the underworld, on this day, people will burn five-color paper and send them clothes to keep out the cold. This expresses the memory of the deceased and the compassion of the living for the deceased.

14. Light snow

The northwest wind began to become a frequent visitor in vast areas of China. The temperature dropped, gradually falling below 0℃, but the earth was not too cold yet. Although it began to snow, the amount of snow was not high. It is big, so it is called Xiaoxue.

15. Heavy Snow

Legend has it that there is a small bird called the Hanhao Bird. This kind of bird is different. It has four legs and two bare fleshy wings. It cannot fly like ordinary birds. In summer, the Hanhao bird's body is covered with gorgeous feathers, and it looks very beautiful. Hanhaoniao was extremely proud. He felt that he was the most beautiful bird in the world. Not even the Phoenix could compare with him. So it shook its feathers all day long, walked around, and sang proudly: "Phoenix is ??not as good as me! Phoenix is ??not as good as me!"

Summer has passed, autumn has arrived, and the birds are all busy. As soon as it opens, some of them began to fly to the south together, preparing to spend the warm winter there; some stayed and worked hard all day long, accumulating food, repairing nests, and making preparations for the winter. Only the cold horn bird, which neither has the ability to fly to the south nor wants to work hard, still wanders around all day long, still showing off its beautiful feathers everywhere.

Winter has finally come, the weather is extremely cold, and the birds have returned to their warm nests. At this time, all the beautiful feathers on the cold horn bird have fallen off. At night, it hid in the crevices of the rocks, shivering with cold, and kept shouting: "It's so cold, it's so cold, wait until daybreak to build a nest!" After daybreak, the sun came out, and the warmth As soon as the sunshine shines, the cold trumpet bird forgets the coldness of the night, so it keeps singing: "I'm getting by! It's warm under the sun!"

The cold trumpet bird just hangs out day by day, Day by day, I haven't been able to build a nest for myself. During the heavy snow season, the north wind howls and the sun loses its usual warmth. The cold horn bird could not survive the cold and heavy snow, and finally froze to death in the crevices of the rocks.

16. Winter Solstice

The ancients said: When the cathode arrives, Yang energy begins to grow, when the sun reaches the south, when the sun is short, when the shadow of the sun is long, it is called "Winter Solstice".

17. Xiaohan

Xiaohan is the 23rd solar term among the 24 solar terms in the lunar calendar, and is also the fifth solar term in winter, marking the official start of the winter season. When the sun reaches ecliptic longitude 285° (Little Cold), it marks the arrival of the coldest day of the year for China.

18. Great Cold

According to legend, in the northern part of ancient India, that is, in the southern part of Nepal in the 21st century, there was King Suddhodana in the Kingdom of Kapilavastu, and he had a son named Gautama Xi. Dado, when he was young, was deeply aware of the sufferings of life, old age, illness and death. He found that social life was futile and was extremely dissatisfied with the theocratic power of Brahmanism. So, when he was 29 years old, he gave up the luxurious life of the royal family and became a monk and practiced asceticism for 6 years.

One day around 525 BC, he was so hungry that he was as thin as a stick and decided not to practice any more. At this time, he met a shepherd girl who gave him milk to eat. He ate chylo and regained his strength, so he sat under a Bodhi tree in Buddha Gaya, became enlightened and founded Buddhism. According to historical records, this day happened to be the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the Chinese lunar calendar. Since he was a member of the Sakyamuni tribe, Buddhists later honored him as Sakyamuni, which means a saint of the Sakyamuni tribe.

19. Beginning of Spring

The Beginning of Spring is astronomically divided, that is, when the sun reaches 315° of ecliptic longitude. "Li" means "beginning". Since the Qin Dynasty, China has always regarded the beginning of spring as the beginning of the Meng Chun season. As the saying goes, "The plan for a year lies in spring." Spring is about warmth, birds singing and flowers are fragrant; spring is about growth, cultivation and sowing.

20. Rain

In ancient times, people had the habit of praying to gods and divination for their children to see what their fortunes were and whether they needed to find a godfather. The purpose of finding a godfather is to help the children grow up smoothly and healthily.

So there was the activity of La Baobao during the Rain Festival. This practice has become a custom year after year.

21. The Waking of Insects

At the beginning of the second lunar month, the reptiles and ants in the home will rise up again and look for food everywhere. Therefore, in ancient times, on the day of the Waking of Insects, people would hold scented incense and mugwort to smoke the four corners of their homes to drive away snakes, insects, mosquitoes, rats and musty smells.

22. Spring Equinox

The Spring Equinox is also a festival and sacrificial celebration. Ancient emperors had the ritual system of worshiping the sun in spring and the moon in autumn. Zhou rites for the emperor to worship the sun at the sun altar. A day for folk outings.

23. Qingming

Qingming is the combination of solar terms and festivals. Solar terms are "heaven's time", which is pure natural time, and festivals are "people's time", which is social and cultural time. choose. As one of the twenty-four solar terms, Qingming was originally a seasonal symbol, occurring one hundred and seven days after the winter solstice, fifteen days after the spring equinox, and around April 5 in the Gregorian calendar.

"Huainanzi·Tenwenxun" records: Fifteen days after the spring equinox, when the handle of the Big Dipper points to position B, the Qingming wind will arrive. The "Qingming" solar term gets its name from this.

24. Guyu

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, there was a young man named Guyu who had very good water qualities. Once there was a flood in his hometown of Caozhou. He relied on this skill to rescue the villagers. He also risked his life to rescue a peony and asked a master gardener to plant it properly.

Gu Yu had been in love with a woman who came to see his mother every day for a long time. When he wanted to propose marriage to this girl, he learned that this beautiful girl was a peony fairy. The peony he saved before. The Peony Fairy made an agreement with Guyu: "Until the eighth of April next year, the slave will settle down in Gumen."

Later, the Peony Fairy's enemy the vulture became seriously ill and forced the Peony sisters to brew stamen wine for them. Heal the sick. The Peony sisters refused to take their own blood and brewed elixir wine for the thieves to drink. However, they were captured and imprisoned by the vulture. After going through many hardships and dangers, Guyu finally broke into the magic cave, defeated the vulture, and rescued the flower fairies on his birthday. When everyone was about to go home, the vulture, which had not yet died, stabbed Gu Yu with a hidden sword. The Peony Fairy was so angry that she picked up Guyu's ax and chopped the dying vulture into a pulp! He turned around, picked up Gu Yu's body, and burst into tears. Guyu saved the lives of these flower fairies with his own life.

Gu Yu is dead. He was born in Guyu and died in Guyu. He was only 21 years old when he was killed. Guyu was buried in the gardener's garden. From then on, the peonies and other flower fairies settled in Caozhou. During the Grain Rain season, the peonies would bloom to express their nostalgia for the Grain Rain.

Extended information:

The twenty-four solar terms are divided according to the position of the earth on the ecliptic. As the sun starts from the vernal equinox (zero degrees of ecliptic longitude, when the sun shines vertically on the equator), every 15 degrees it advances is a solar term; it travels for one week and returns to the vernal equinox, which is a tropical year, totaling 360 degrees, so it is divided into 24 solar terms.

The twenty-four solar terms reflect the annual apparent motion of the sun, so their dates are relatively fixed in the Gregorian calendar. The solar term in the first half of the year is on the 6th, the middle solar term is on the 21st, and the solar term in the second half of the year is on the 21st. The solar term is on the 8th and the middle qi is on the 23rd. There is no difference between the two by 1 to 2 days. The earth orbits the sun once every 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds (accurately), and it also rotates once every 24 hours.

Because the orbital plane of the Earth's rotation is not consistent with the equatorial plane, but maintains a certain inclination, the position of the direct sunlight hitting the Earth is different throughout the year. In the northern hemisphere, when the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Cancer (23°26' north latitude), it is called the summer solstice in astronomy; when the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Cancer (23°26' south latitude), it is called the winter solstice; the summer solstice and the winter solstice mean that the summer and winter solstice have arrived. It's the middle of winter.

When the sun shines directly on the equator twice in a year, it is the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox respectively. This is also the middle of spring and autumn. During these two days, the day and night are as long as each other.

The activity pattern of the direct sun point is as follows: at the vernal equinox (around March 21), the direct sun point is at 0° on the equator, and then moves northward. At the summer solstice (around June 22), the sun’s direct point is on the Tropic of Cancer (23°26’N), and moves southward thereafter.

At the autumnal equinox (around September 23), the direct sun point is at 0° on the equator, and continues to move southward thereafter. At the winter solstice (around December 22), the sun’s direct point is on the Tropic of Cancer (23°26’S), and moves northward after that.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Twenty-Four Solar Terms