Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - The 24 Solar Terms - Twenty-four solar couplets

Twenty-four solar couplets

In the China lunar calendar, there are 24 solar terms in a year. In China's couplets, there are many solar terms as the theme, and some of them are still wonderful. For example, it is said that there was a learning platform in the Ming Dynasty. When visiting Tiantai Mountain in Zhejiang, it spent the night in a hut in the mountains. When I got up the next morning, I saw that the hut was covered with frost, and I felt something freely in my heart and sang the first part:

It was very cold last night, and it was like a light snow in the first frost cabin.

There are three solar terms embedded in the couplet, all at once, without trace. It became absolute for a time. It was not until modern times that Mr. Zhao Gongpei of Zhejiang made the bottom line:

Today is a stormy day, and it rains until Qingming at the vernal equinox.

The same three solar terms are very neat.

Another couplet is more literary and scientific:

The vernal equinox in February and the autumnal equinox in August are neither long nor short.

There is no difference between yin and yang in three years and five years.

The first part not only points out the months of vernal equinox and autumnal equinox, but also clarifies the time characteristics of these two months, that is, February and August are even day and night. The second couplet shows the regularity of lunar leap year from another angle, and its scientific nature is beyond doubt.

Hong Chengchou, a former minister of the Ming Dynasty and later a minister of the Qing Dynasty, played a couplet when playing chess with people on the day of "Grain Rain", saying:

I almost forgot Grain Rain at a wonderful game of chess today.

Why are the leaders of the two dynasties unclear in other years?

The first part was made by Hong Chengchou, and the second part was made by the players. It is intended to satirize Hong's loss of justice and humiliation, which is a pun and full of irony.

The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20th, 2006, this folk custom was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.