The Origin and Meaning of the 24 Solar Terms

The origin of the 24 solar terms

The 24 solar terms, is the ancient times, according to the Earth in the ecliptic (that is, the Earth's orbit around the Sun) on the position of the changes and the development of each of the solar terms corresponds to the Sun in the ecliptic every movement of 15 ° to a certain position and the development of the climatic laws.

The orbit of the Earth around the Sun was named "ecliptic" by the ancients, also known as the "solar path", the ecliptic is divided into 24 equal proportions, 15 ° apart, the formation of the 24 solar terms.

The 24 solar terms are actually 24 seasonal points, 2 per month.

The 24 solar terms take the Earth's rotation around the Sun as a cycle, and basically summarize the differences in the position of the Sun on the ecliptic at different times of the year, the exact time of the cold and the heat, the laws of natural phenomena such as rainfall and snowfall, as well as recording some of the phenomena of nature's physical phenomena at the moment.

The dates of the start of the twenty-four solar terms in the Chinese Dry Branches Calendar are almost identical to the internationally recognized Gregorian calendar, with a difference of one or two days at the most, precisely because the Dry Branches Calendar, like the Gregorian calendar, is based on the Earth's one yearly revolution around the Sun.

The Stem and Branch Calendar is a calendar that uses 60 different sets of heavenly stems and earthly branches to mark the year, month, day, and hour.

The Stem and Branch Calendar starts the year with the first day of spring and the first day of the month with the festival of the new year.

It divides the twelve months with twenty-four solar terms, each containing two solar terms, and there are no leap months.

The Stem and Branches calendar is related to the cyclical motion of the Earth around the Sun, and its year, month, and day are all determined by the Sun's apparent motion, independent of the lunar phases of the Taiyin.

However, it is different from the usual solar calendar (such as the Gregorian calendar), in which the length of the month is determined by human beings and has nothing to do with celestial phenomena, so it is a solar calendar with Chinese characteristics.

Since ancient times, the Stem and Branch Calendar has remained popular in books such as the almanac, and is used in numerology, feng shui and numerology.

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The significance of the 24 Solar Terms

The 24 Solar Terms are not only the time guidelines issued by the government, but also the compasses to guide agricultural production, and the compasses for people to foretell the cold, warmth, snow and rain in daily life.

The 24 solar terms accurately reflect the changes of the seasons and are used to guide agricultural activities, affecting the clothing, food, housing and transportation of thousands of families.

The 24 solar terms scientifically reveal the laws of astronomical and meteorological changes.

The 24 Solar Terms have skillfully combined astronomy, agriculture, weather and folklore, and have given rise to a large number of related seasonal cultures, which have become an important part of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation.

In the long agrarian society, the twenty-four solar terms have played an important role in guiding agricultural activities and have rich cultural connotations, and some important solar terms, such as Lichun, winter solstice, Qingming, etc., also have interesting folk customs, such as "biting the spring" and "trekking in the green". The first is the "Bird's Nest", which is the most important festival in the world.

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The characteristics of the festivals

These are the main characteristics of the festivals. p> Characteristics of the festival

Spring season

Lichun: Dou refers to Yin; the Sun's yellow longitude is 315 degrees.

Li means beginning; Lichun is the beginning of spring.

The festival is intersected on February 3-5 of the Gregorian calendar.

Rain: Doo refers to non; the Sun's yellow longitude is 330°.

The beginning of rainfall, with a gradual increase in rainfall.

February 18-20, Gregorian calendar.

Hibernation: Dou refers to Ding; the Sun's yellow longitude is 345°.

Hibernation means hiding.

Hibernation means the first stirring of spring thunder, which awakens animals hibernating in the earth.

The festival is crossed on March 05-07 of the Gregorian calendar.

Vernal Equinox: Doo refers to non; the Sun's yellow longitude is 0°.

Equinox means equal division.

Vernal equinox means equal division of day and night.

The festival is intersected on March 20-22 in the Gregorian calendar.

Qingming Festival: Dou means Ding; the Sun's yellow longitude is 15°.

The weather is clear and the grass is lush.

The festival is celebrated on April 04-06 of the Gregorian calendar.

Grain Rain: The Dou refers to the Declination; the Sun's yellow longitude is 30°.

Rain produces all kinds of grains.

Rain is sufficient and timely for cereal crops to thrive.

The festival is crossed on April 19-21 in the Gregorian calendar.

Summer

Lixia: The Dou refers to the southeast; the sun's yellow longitude is 45°.

The beginning of summer.

May 05-07 cross section of the Gregorian calendar.

Xiaoman: Doo nails; the Sun's yellow longitude is 60°.

Summer crops such as wheat begin to fill with seeds.

May 20-27, Gregorian calendar to cross the festival.

Mangseo: Doo refers to the hexagram; the Sun's yellow longitude is 75°.

Wheat and other awned crops ripen.

June 05-07 Gregorian calendar.

Summer Solstice: Doo points to B; the Sun's yellow longitude is 90°.

The heat of summer arrives.

June 21-22 intersection of the calendar.

Xiaosummer: Dou refers to Xin; the Sun's yellow longitude is 105°.

Summer means heat; Xiaoshu is the beginning of a hot climate.

July 06-08 cross section of the Gregorian calendar.

Great summer heat: Dou refers to C; the sun's yellow longitude is 120°.

The hottest time of the year.

July 22-24 Gregorian calendar cross section.

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Autumn

Autumn: the Doo points southwest; the Sun's yellow longitude is 135°.

The beginning of autumn.

August 07-09 cross section of the Gregorian calendar.

Heatstroke: Doo points to E; the Sun's ecliptic longitude is 150°.

Shi means termination, hiding.

The first heat is the end of the hot summer days.

The festival is intersected on August 22-24 in the Gregorian calendar.

White Dew: The Dou refers to the Declination; the Sun's yellow longitude is 165°.

The weather turns cooler and the dew condenses and turns white.

September 07-09, Gregorian calendar.

Autumn Equinox: The Dou refers to already; the Sun's yellow longitude is 180°.

Equal division of day and night.

September 22-24, Gregorian calendar.

Cold Dew: Doo-finger nail; the Sun's yellow longitude is 195°.

The dew is cold and will freeze.

October 08-09, Gregorian calendar.

Frost: Dou refers to the eleventh day of the month; the sun's yellow longitude is 210°.

The weather is getting colder and frost begins.

The festival is celebrated on October 23-24 of the Gregorian calendar.

Winter

Lidong: Dou refers to the northwest; the Sun's yellow longitude is 225°.

The beginning of winter.

November 7-8 cross section of the Gregorian calendar.

Xiaoxue: Doo refers to the hexagon; the sun's yellow longitude is 240°.

Means the beginning of snow.

November 22-23 Gregorian calendar.

Great Snow: Doo refers to Dec; the Sun's yellow longitude is 255°.

Snowfall increases and snow may accumulate on the ground.

December 6-8, Gregorian calendar.

Winter Solstice: Doo Finger Zi; the Sun's yellow longitude is 270°.

The onset of cold winter.

The festival is celebrated on December 21-23 of the Gregorian calendar.

Xiao Chan: Doo Finger Zi; the Sun's yellow longitude is 285°.

The climate starts to get cold.

The festival is celebrated on January 5-7 of the Gregorian calendar.

The Great Cold: the Doo points to the Ugly; the Sun's yellow longitude is 300°.

The coldest time of the year.

January 20-21, Gregorian calendar to cross the festival.

Social Implications

The 24 specific festivals in the Stem and Branch Calendar, which represent the changing seasons, were established in ancient times.

The Han Dynasty absorbed the 24 seasons to guide the supplementary calendar for agriculture, which is said to have been based on seasonal changes in the sky, temperature, precipitation, and physical conditions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and which may have depicted a very different picture of the same seasons for other parts of China.

But in fact, although the four seasons of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River can be reflected in the four seasons of the climate, the specific climatic significance of the "Li" is not significant.

Climatologically, the average daily temperature is often stabilized at more than 10 ℃ for every five days of the beginning of the day divided into the beginning of spring, it is not consistent with the meaning of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River spring, the only real spring into the Lingnan region.

"Spring, China's winter and spring demarcation line (the average daily temperature for five consecutive days up to 10 degrees Celsius or more counted into spring), in Guangxi Guilin to Jiangxi Ganzhou line.

The area south of that line, there is the breath of spring at the beginning of spring, but 93% of China's land area is still winter, to Heilongjiang, often in the valley of the rain when the summer into spring, the so-called spring, but also just some 'intention'."

Ancient China will be the longest annual shadow of the sun as "to the" (also known as the day long to, long to, winter solstice), the shortest shadow of the sun for the "day short to" (also known as the short solstice, summer solstice).

In the spring and fall each day of equal length of day and night, they are designated as the "spring equinox" and "autumn equinox".

In the 21st century, with the popularization and development of agricultural science and technology, the constraints of the festival have not been so strict, but it still plays a fundamental role in guiding people's production and life, and is still an important reference for our food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Twenty-four seasons in many parts of the country still remain, a lot of agricultural proverbs and sayings, such as "spring is warming up, the rain sends fertilizer busy," "Qingming break snow, rain break frost," "white dew, with fish full of boat tip! ""After the White Dew Festival, night and day heat"" "small snow pickles, snow pickled meat", but also widely guided by our production and life, is a vivid example.

Historically, the twenty-four solar terms have long been out of the country and into the world, affecting the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Southeast Asia.

In some places, although the change of seasons is not obvious, the people there are still inheriting and promoting the 24 Solar Terms and the culture attached to them, which fully demonstrates its cultural value.

As early as ancient times, the 24 Solar Terms were accepted by other countries, such as Korea and Japan, and have been used in modern times in combination with their national realities and cultures.

The 24 Solar Terms have been introduced to Japan for more than 1,000 years, and some of them have been included in the official Japanese holidays.

? [7]? In ancient times, Japan used the Chinese lunar calendar, following the 24 Solar Terms, and changed its calendar with the Chinese imperial court, using the Yuanjia Calendar, the Linde Calendar, the Dayan Calendar, the Wuji Calendar, and the Xuanming Calendar.

After that, Japan began to use the Jungheung Calendar, the Tenpo Calendar, and others, which were more localized and written by Japanese.

Japan's local festivals based on the 24 Solar Terms are called "Miscellaneous Festivals", and since the 24 Solar Terms are based on the rotation of the Earth, they are still celebrated according to the traditional algorithm of dates based on the 24 Solar Terms. The traditional algorithm of setting dates according to the seasons is still in use.

For example, "Setsubun" in the Japanese Miscellaneous Festivals is the day before "Lichun" in the Chinese "24 Solar Terms"; "Pishin" is the day that includes the Vernal Equinox, the Spring Equinox, and the Pisan, which is the day before the Spring Equinox. The "Pisan" is a week that includes the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and so on.

In contemporary Japan, the vernal equinox is also recognized as a public **** holiday.

Staff members of the Seoul National Folklore Museum put up spring couplets on the gate of the traditional Korean building, Omura House, in Seoul, South Korea, on February 2, 2015, local time, with two days left in the twenty-four seasons of spring.

In the Vietnamese traditional calendar, most of the 24 Solar Terms have been retained, while the timing of some of them has been changed to make them more applicable to the actual situation in Vietnam.

Currently, although the solar calendar is officially used in Vietnam, some people still use the traditional lunar and solar calendars, especially farmers, who still follow the seasons to organize their work and rest.

The successful bidding of the 24 Solar Terms proves that Chinese culture is once again recognized by the international community.

Since ancient times, it has not only been the guardian of the lives of our ancestors, but also a guiding light that has influenced the development of civilization in many countries.