In ancient times, the 24 solar terms were used to divide seasonal changes. How did it come into being?

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the working people in China had the concepts of South to Japan and North to Japan. Subsequently, people divided the year into 24 equal parts according to the natural phenomena such as the running position of the sun and the moon, the weather and the growth of animals and plants at the beginning and middle of the month. And give each equal part an appropriate name, which is the twenty-four solar terms.

By the end of the Warring States Period, there were eight solar terms: beginning of spring, Equinox, Long Summer, Summer Solstice, beginning of autumn, Equinox, beginning of winter and Winter Solstice. These eight solar terms are the most important of the 24 solar terms.

These eight solar terms mark the change of seasons and clearly divide the four seasons of the year. Later, when the book Huainanzi was published, the names of the 24 solar terms were exactly the same as those of the modern ones.

This is the earliest record of the 24 solar terms in the history of China. Textual research on unearthed cultural relics discovered by archaeology has adopted solar terms since the Western Han Dynasty in China. There are eight sections and twenty-four solar terms in Zhou Bi suan Jing in Han Dynasty.

Most of them represent climate change, differences between objects and images, and are closely combined with agriculture. Therefore, at that time, we can grasp the seasonal changes from the eight solar terms and decide to sow and harvest crops in time.

China has been a country with a very developed agriculture since ancient times. Due to the close relationship between agriculture and meteorology, the ancient working people in China have accumulated rich experience in the relationship between agricultural time and seasonal changes in the long-term agricultural labor practice. In order to make it easy to remember, connect the words of the names of the 24 solar terms to rhyme:

Spring rain shocks spring and clear valley days, summer is full of mountains and summer is connected, autumn dew is frosty, and winter is snowy. The formulation of the twenty-four solar terms integrates the knowledge of astronomy, meteorology and crop growth characteristics, which accurately reflects the characteristics of natural forces in a year, so it is still used in agricultural production and is loved by farmers.