What role did the solar term Song play in agriculture and people's life?

(1) The twenty-four solar terms are the basic time indicator of agricultural production activities in the traditional period, which is also the most basic function and value of the twenty-four solar terms in the traditional era.

Agricultural production, as an economic production activity carried out by human beings according to the natural rhythm and the law of crop growth, one of its most basic requirements is to grasp the farming season. As the saying goes, "Five grains can't beat grain unless they go against the farming season."

Grasping the farming season means that all aspects of agricultural production, such as arable land, sowing, irrigation, fertilization and harvesting, are carried out in turn according to the corresponding time points on the basis of following the natural rhythm. Twenty-four solar terms, according to the annual return movement of the sun, can accurately reflect the climate change, precipitation and so on. Therefore, ancient ancestors used this as the basic basis for grasping different farming time points. As the saying goes, "Farming has no rules, and it all depends on solar terms."

In the long-term production development and historical accumulation, these agricultural knowledge related to solar terms have been summarized into simple and clear agricultural proverbs and passed down from generation to generation. For example, the agricultural proverb of planting wheat, which is widely circulated in North China, is "early dew, late cold dew, and the autumn equinox is the time to plant wheat". In fact, among all agricultural proverbs, agricultural proverbs related to the twenty-four solar terms account for the largest proportion.

(2) Twenty-four solar terms are also an important time node of people's daily social life in the traditional era. The reason for this is determined by the time and life characteristics of "agriculture-oriented" in the traditional era.

In a year, influenced by natural rhythm, agricultural production activities will also show certain rhythm characteristics from sowing to harvesting, that is, agricultural rhythm. In line with this, rural social life will also show a certain rhythm. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, various activities have their own time. Agricultural production activities have ups and downs, so the activities of rural social life will inevitably have ups and downs, and all activities will be cleverly coordinated and orderly distributed in time and space.

As the basic time indicator of agricultural activities, the 24 solar terms have become an important node and time coordinate of people's life in one year, and to some extent, they are also time indicators of people's daily social life. This is most obvious in the traditional monthly time system. The monthly order, that is, the action record according to the annual natural rhythm change, was once a law that all social strata in early China had to abide by.

Usually, when we talk about the activities of each month, we always talk about the solar terms first, then about the corresponding agricultural activities, and then talk about other activities, from the Book of Rites, the Moon Order, the Huai Nan Zi Shi Ze Xun, the Moon Order for Four People, and so on, to the Tonifying the Farming Classic in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and this tradition has continued. Because of this, from ancient times to the present, people have always advocated to use the solar calendar system to replace the system of combining Yin and Yang in China's traditional society, such as the twelve-qi calendar formulated by Shen Kuo, a famous naturalist in the Song Dynasty.

(3) For ancient ancestors, the 24 solar terms were not only a time system, but also had more colorful life connotations, which was an important embodiment and part of their colorful life.

In the early era of observing images and timing, the farming cycle was a celebration cycle, and solar terms were also festivals. Although solar terms and festivals have been separated since then due to the gradual improvement and promotion of the yin-yang system, there are still many solar terms preserved as festivals. For example, "Li Si", that is, the beginning of spring, the long summer, the beginning of autumn and the beginning of winter, has always been an important festival in history.

During the solar term, the emperor will lead the officials to hold grand ceremonies in the east, south, west and north suburbs of Beijing to welcome the spring, summer, autumn and winter. For example, the solstice in winter, the solstice in summer and Tomb-Sweeping Day are still important traditional festivals today, especially in Tomb-Sweeping Day, which is called the four traditional festivals in China together with the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. In addition to festival solar terms, in fact, from a national perspective, almost every solar term also has its own colorful solar terms customs.