Why is the solar term "Gu Yu" said to be cultural?

Sacrifice to Wenzu Cangjie: Since the Han Dynasty, Guyu has had the custom of offering sacrifices to Wenzu Cangjie.

According to legend, Cangjie created characters, which was so great that the Yellow Emperor was so moved that he rewarded him with "grain rain from the sky" for his creation of characters. From then on, the "Grain Rain" Festival began.

Since then, temple fairs have been organized every year during Guyu Festival to commemorate Cangjie.

Guyu means "rain produces hundreds of grains". It occurs when the sun reaches 30° longitude on April 20 or 21 every year.

Grain Rain is the last solar term in spring. At this time, the seedlings in the fields are first planted and new crops are planted. They need the moisture of rain the most, so it is said that "spring rain is as precious as oil."

During the Grain Rain season in the south, "poplars are all falling and their children are crowing", catkins are flying down, cuckoos are crowing at night, peonies are blooming, and cherries are red and ripe. The natural scenery tells people that it is late spring.

Summer has also entered the low-elevation river valleys.

In ancient China, Grain Rain was divided into three periods: "The first period is when duckweeds begin to grow; the second period is when doves brush their feathers; and the third period is when Dai Ren falls on mulberry trees." This means that after Grain Rain, rainfall increases and duckweeds begin to grow.

Then the cuckoos began to remind people of planting, and then the hoopoe began to be seen in the mulberry trees.

"Grain Rain Sacrifice to Cangjie" is a folk tradition that has been passed down for thousands of years since the Han Dynasty.

This custom is still preserved in some places in Shaanxi.

About 4000 years ago, Emperor Xuanyuan was promoted from the tribal leader to the leader of the tribal alliance, and he appointed Cangjie as the left historian.

After Cangjie became a historian, he used different types of shells and knots of different sizes and lengths to mark events.

However, as Cangjie took charge of more and more affairs, the old method was far from meeting the needs, and Cangjie was very worried.

Every year during the Guyu Festival, Cangjie Temple holds a traditional temple fair, which lasts for seven to ten days.

Year after year, tens of thousands of people come here from all directions to hold a grand and warm welcome to the temple and a grand and solemn memorial ceremony to commemorate and worship Cangjie, the founder of writing.

People performed yangko, ran bamboo horses, played Shehuo, performed martial arts, beat gongs and drums, acted in dramas, sang and danced, and expressed their respect and memory for Cang Sheng.

Theater troupes and merchants also came to join in the fun, which was very lively.

In the dazzling historical picture of the Chinese nation, Cangjie is a figure between myth and legend. Whether viewed from the perspective of mythology, ethnology or folklore, he is a sacred person in ancient times and is known in history as "

"Long's face has four eyes" and "his voice is wise" ("Lunheng" and "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals"). His outstanding achievement lies in "the beginning of writing to replace the government of knotting ropes".

The creation of this "secret weapon" of mankind caused "drops of rain from the sky, ghosts crying at night, and dragons hiding" ("Huainanzi"). It was a heroic initiative that shocked the world and made ghosts and gods weep.

Cangjie, whose original surname was Hougang and whose given name was Jie, was commonly known as Cangjie's predecessor and also the Shihuang family.

According to the records of "Hetu Jade Edition" and "Zen Tongji", Cangjie once established himself as emperor, named Cangdi, and was the leader of a tribe in ancient times.

During the reign of Cangjie, he worshiped Luo Shu at the water of Luorui.

According to historical records: After the rise of Emperor Xuanyuan, Huangdi’s historians Cangjie and Jusong were inspired by the footprints of birds and beasts. They concentrated the wisdom of the working people and worked hard for decades to collect, sort out and promote the hieroglyphic symbols that had been passed down to the ancestors.

and use.

Although the knots differ in size and shape, they are difficult to identify due to age.

Houcangjie looked up at the winding movement of Kuixing, looked down at the texture of the turtle's back, the claw marks of birds and animals, the topography of mountains and rivers, and the fingerprints of his palms. He was inspired by this and created hieroglyphics based on the shapes of things.

The images created by Cangjie were called words.

The characters created by Cangjie have six general meanings. One type refers to words that refer to things, such as "up and down", and the other refers to image words, such as "sun and moon".

The third refers to pictophonetic characters, such as "江,河", and the fourth refers to ideographic characters, such as "武,信".

The fifth refers to the transferred characters, such as "老、kao".

Six refers to borrowed words, such as "Ling, Chang".

Words that refer to things are above and below.

Refers to pictographic characters, the sun is full and the moon is waning, imitating its shape.

Phonophonetic characters use categories as shapes and are paired with sounds.

Understanding words can stop fighting and turn into force, and people's words can turn into trust.

The text of the transferred annotation is based on the test of old age.

The borrowed words have the same character in several words. Although the sound is different, the meaning of the text is the same.

Therefore, from the Yellow Emperor to the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the text has been used without any changes.

On the day when Cangjie created the Chinese characters, the whole country rejoiced and God moved the gods to rain down millet, which frightened the ghosts and made them chirp and cry at night. This is what "Huainanzi" records: "The sky rains millet, and the ghosts cry at night."