A slight cold is better than a great cold. Why is it also called "slight cold"?

"The frozen Wan Li is covered with snow, which blocks thousands of port jams. Yesterday, I cut peaches and repaired a few trees, and suddenly it was like a plum blossom overnight. " The poet Heshui Zuo described the cold scene in the slight cold season in his poem "Slight Cold". An agricultural proverb says, "A slight cold is better than a severe cold, which is common but not rare." That is to say, slight cold is colder than severe cold. Why?

The oldest "Jiujiu Song" recorded in A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital says: "Three-nine-twenty-seven, the hedge blows? Hey. " ? Shan is an ancient wind instrument, shaped like a trumpet, with reeds as its mouth and bamboo as its pipe. The cold wind blows on the fence, like blowing? Fat, whistling. The "Jiujiu Song" circulating in the northern region says "March 9th and April 9th walk on the ice", that is, "March 9th" freezes the earth and people walk on the ice. Proverbs say "cold in March 9th" and "freezing dogs in March 9th". All these show that "March 9th" is the coldest period. The "March 9th" is mostly from January 9th to 17th (this year), while the slight cold season is all in the "March 9th" and coincides with the beginning of the "April 9th". The slight cold lasts for 15 days, including 12 days in the "March 9th and April 9th", so the temperature is the lowest during the slight cold. Therefore, there is a saying that "there is a slight cold in 349, and the north wind howls when it is cold."

from the meteorological point of view, during the slight cold solar term, the East Asian trough developed most strongly and stably, the Mongolian cold high and Aleutian low also reached the strongest and stable, and the ridge scale of the westerly trough reached the maximum, which matched with the strongest westerly intensity. The cooling process of cold air in the slight cold season is frequent. Evidence can also be obtained from meteorological proverbs in various places, such as "a slight cold and a severe cold freeze into a ball" and "a slight cold and a severe cold, dripping into ice". Liu Yong, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said in his poem "Looking at Mei": "In the slight cold season, the same clouds are miserable and the wind is blowing hard."

In the long-term practice, people have found that slight cold weather has an influence on the future climate, and summed up many meteorological proverbs. Proverbs that predict the changes of severe cold according to slight cold, such as "slight cold is not cold and severe cold" and "slight cold is hot, but severe cold is not to be said", mean that if slight cold is not cold, severe cold must be cold; Forecast the temperature changes after the Spring Festival, such as "mild cold and severe cold, warm weather in the coming spring", "mild cold and warm shock", "mild cold and rainy, rain shock and freeze seedlings", etc. Predicting the amount of rain and snow in the coming year, such as "slight cold and warm, snow in beginning of spring" and "slight cold and no cold, clear mire"; Predicting the corresponding relationship between small summer heat and large summer heat. For example, "it doesn't snow in a slight cold, and the fields crack in a slight summer", "it doesn't rain in a slight cold, and it will be dry in a slight summer".

why is it called "slight cold" when it is colder than severe cold? First of all, it conforms to the ancient philosophical concept of "step by step". The ancients thought: "cold air is cold for a long time, and the small one is not extreme." In the eyes of the ancients, cold is also a gradual accumulation process of development, which is gradual. There is a slight cold before there is a great cold, and the period when it does not reach the coldest is designated as a slight cold. "twenty-four solar term" records: "Slight cold, December Festival. The cold is still small at the beginning of the month, so it is cloudy. Half a month is big. " Second, according to the ancient philosophical principle of "extremes meet", the "heaven" of alternating cold and summer heat is that it is bound to pick up after the extreme cold. If the cold comes first and then the slight cold, you can't literally find the feeling of "picking up" after the coldest. After the Great Cold came beginning of spring, and the spring returned to the earth, and the temperature began to rise, which was in line with the traditional thinking habits of the ancients. Therefore, the Great Cold should be placed after the Slight Cold. Third, it corresponds to the summer heat. The slight cold in winter corresponds to the slight heat in summer, so it is called "slight cold". The Great Cold, which is located after the slight cold solar term, is in the "April 9th" for about a week, which is also a relatively cold season. In the ancient "Jiujiu Song", there was a saying that "four kuya sleeps like camping", and the Great Cold just corresponds to the great summer heat. So it is called "Great Cold".

the poet Yuan Zhen in the Tang Dynasty wrote "Ode to the Twenty-four Qi Poems": "The slight cold is connected with the great Lu, and the happy magpie builds a new nest. Picking up food to find meanders, holding purple around the treetops. The frost eagle is near the north head. Pheasants gather together in secret. Don't blame me for being strict, and I will pay in the first month of spring and winter. " In the Twelve Laws of ancient China, "Huang Zhong Da Lv" corresponds to November and December respectively, so it is called "Xiao Han Lian Da Lv". In the middle five sentences, the slight cold was divided into three stages in ancient times: "First, waiting for Yanbei Township, second, waiting for magpies to start their nests, and third, waiting for pheasants to start their nests". "twenty-four solar term" said: "Yanbei Township: the meaning of a guide. When the sun sets, the geese will avoid the heat and return. Now they will fly to the north of the township and return to beginning of spring. The birds will be angry before they die. Magpie begins to nest: magpie, magpie also; At the gate of the nest, every time it is too old, the winter solstice begins to Tianyuan, and the second sun has won the solar terms in the coming year, so the magpie can be a nest and know what to do. Beginning? : pheasant, civilized bird, yang bird; ? The same sound of male and female is also felt in the yang and then there is sound. " It means that the yang is budding, the geese begin to move northward, the magpies start to nest, and the pheasants start to sing. The last two sentences of the poem say that although it is winter, it is not far from the first month of spring. As Shelley, an English romantic poet, said in ode to the west wind, "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?"