Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - The 24 Solar Terms - What are the three stages of the vernal equinox?

What are the three stages of the vernal equinox?

What are the three stages of the vernal equinox?

Spring not only refers to a season, but also includes beginning of spring, rain, fright, vernal equinox, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Grain Rain, among which the vernal equinox divides these solar terms equally. The ancients divided spring into three stages and thought that there were three climates. The first was the time when birds flew back, the date when it thundered, and the last was the time when lightning could be seen.

Wait for the bird to arrive at the original text

The content of the full text is waiting for the arrival of the mysterious bird, waiting for the sound of thunder and waiting for the start of electricity. In fact, the literal meaning is easier to understand. Maybe some people are not familiar with mysterious birds. Zoologists think it refers to swallows, because it is a migratory bird that comes at the vernal equinox and goes at the autumn equinox. Ancient literati imagined these natural phenomena as living immortals and wrote them into their works. Therefore, in China's literature, there appeared models of immortals such as Shi Feng, Apollo, Lei Gong and Dian Mu, and many vivid proverbs were also produced to guide agricultural production.

What are the specific meanings?

Swallows who spend the winter in the south fly back to the north, build nests with grass and mud and start a new year's life. The last two sentences say that after thunder, you can see lightning in a few days. Although it thundered, the small animals were awakened at this time. However, the real rainy season is at the vernal equinox. At this time, the weather turned warmer, the rain increased, and the air became humid, so there was a second chance to wait for Lei Nai to make a sound. The third waiting time began to be electrified, indicating that due to the increasing rainfall, it was accompanied by lightning. People can often see lightning splitting from clouds. It is not advisable to fly kites outdoors at this time, and it is not too late to fly kites until the weather is fine.