What does Xiao Man Ji mean?

This paper intends to explain the meaning of "Little Full Season" from three aspects.

Let me briefly talk about "Little Full Season". The so-called "little full season" refers to the solar term "little full", which is one of the 24 solar terms. There are 24 solar terms in a year, and each solar term is 15 days. Then in the solar term of "Xiaoman", it is called "Xiaoman Season".

Secondly, the word "season" can be used in every solar term, such as Xiaoman season, Qingming season, long summer season, Mang season, summer solstice season and so on.

According to Modern Chinese Dictionary, the "season" used in solar terms can be understood as "season", which refers to the climate (meteorological conditions) and phenology (the relationship between biological periodicity and seasonal climate) of a solar term. Xiaoman season refers to the "Xiaoman" festival. Another example is the famous sentence in the Tang Dynasty: "It rains in succession during the Qingming Festival", "It is hot in the season" and "Chang 'an is a good time for Qingming Festival, so it is only appropriate to send it to each other, not to send it away". The "season" here refers to festivals.

In addition, "season" can also be understood as "season", which should be judged according to its language environment. For example, Du Fu's poem "Good rain knows the season, when spring comes", obviously this "season" means "season".

In fact, to put it bluntly, whether it refers to "festival" or "time" in "solar terms", it can be understood as "time". The so-called "little full season" simply refers to the little full time. Another example is the famous poem written by Haitang in the Tang Dynasty, "The rouge disappears a little in rainy days, and the most enchanting in the half-open season". The "season" here means "time".

Second, finally talk about the meaning of "Xiao Man". How is the solar term "Xiaoman" named? As a word, "Xiao Man" is of course relative to "Da Man". The so-called small fullness refers to a situation that is a little full but dissatisfied. The solar term is named "Xiaoman" because the typical phenology of this season-wheat is mature, but not really mature, just in the filling stage, but not far from maturity, so it is named "Xiaoman".

In ancient times, there were five days as a period, and each solar term had 15 days, which was divided into three periods. Then, Xiaoman's "third class" means waiting for the bitter vegetable show, waiting for the grass to die, and waiting for the wheat autumn to arrive. It means: small full solar terms, bitter vegetables flourish;

Some soft grass that likes shade begins to die in the strong sunlight; As for fresh wheat, it has gradually matured. The three phenology here are typical features of Xiaoman season and represent some biological features of this season.

It can be seen that the "full" of "Xiaoman" means "full", which is based on the phenological characteristics of northern China. For the southern part of China, this "small fullness" is related to precipitation, that is, the word "full" is used to describe the water quantity, because a large amount of precipitation has begun in the south at this time, and the so-called "full" means "full of water". It is called "Xiaoman" because it has just entered the rainy period and there is not much precipitation.

There is a proverb in the south of China, "If a villain is dissatisfied, the ridge will be broken", which means that if a villain is full and there is not enough water in the field, the ridge may be cracked. People think that little people have no rain, so there are some agricultural proverbs, such as "little people are dissatisfied, the grain will not be harvested" and "little people are dissatisfied, and the wheat is in danger".

As can be seen from the above, Xiaoman's "fullness" has two meanings, one is to describe the fullness of crops, and the other is to describe the situation of rain.