What is the origin of the Millennium solar terms?

At the Chinese Poetry Conference, Teacher Meng Man said: Among the 24 solar terms, there are two most beautiful ones, one is Qingming and the other is Bailu. The Millennium is not only beautiful in name, but also more beautiful in season. Let's get to know this beautiful white dew together!

First, the origin of the Millennium solar terms:

The origin of the Millennium solar terms comes from the ancients' understanding of the laws governing the operation of the sun.

The ancients discovered the law that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west through the observation of celestial phenomena, and realized that the sun's orbit is a circle, and called it the ecliptic. According to the angle of change, the position of the sun in a year is divided into twenty-four equal parts, each equal part is fifteen degrees, which is the twenty-four ecliptic.

In the process of verifying the laws of the twenty-four eclipses for a long time, the ancients found that climate change seems to be related to these twenty-four eclipses, so the distribution of twenty-four solar terms appeared. Then, by naming the manifestation of the season in which each solar term is located, the 24 solar terms that we see now finally appeared.

The origin of the Millennium solar terms is described in ancient books. According to the explanation of "Millennium" in Wu Cheng's book "Twenty-four Solar Terms" in Yuan Dynasty, "soil and water condense into dew, autumn belongs to gold, golden white, white is dew color, and qi begins to be cold".

The water vapor generated on the ground condenses into dew, and autumn is golden and white, so white is the color of autumn dew, and the appearance of white dew also means that the weather is getting colder.

The Millennium "white" is based on the ancient Yin-Yang and Five Elements. The ancients believed that spring belongs to wood, summer belongs to fire, winter belongs to water, and autumn belongs to gold, while gold is white, wood is green, water is black, fire is red and soil is yellow. Therefore, the color of autumn is white, which makes the solar term that should have been called autumn dew finally named "White Dew", a more cultural name.

Second, the Millennium third-class:

In ancient China, the vernal equinox was divided into three periods: first, when Hongyan came; Second, wait for the mysterious bird to return; A flock of birds breeds shame. The content of the three solar terms is that in order to better carry out agricultural activities, ancient people divided a climate into three equal parts, that is, three periods with five days each. Then every five days according to the most unique weather conditions, animal and plant behavior, environmental changes to decide. For example, the three stages of the Millennium are all determined by the habits of animals in that period. The following is a detailed introduction to these three stages:

Wait: Red Rock is coming.

Seeing this meaning, I began to think, why should the geese move south in autumn be "the departure of Hongyan"? In fact, this is related to the habits of geese in the process of moving south and the misunderstanding of the ancients.

Every year around September, geese will begin to migrate from the breeding ground to the wintering ground in large numbers. Migration is often the integration of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of large groups, and then leave in batches. They will not fly directly to their destination without a rest, but will rest halfway, often moving a batch and coming back, thus giving the ancients the illusion that "the geese are coming". In fact, they are just passing by for a rest, not "coming" as the ancients said.

Waiting for the second time: the mysterious bird is back

This weather means that swallows fly to the south to avoid the cold. The ancient people thought that swallows were birds in the south, so they used the word "return", which meant going home.

In the twenty-four solar terms of ancient books, the "mysterious bird" is explained as follows: "The mysterious bird sees the vernal equinox (at the beginning of the vernal equinox, the mysterious bird arrives; At this time, Yan came from the north to the south. Yan is a bird in the south, so he came back.

It means that swallows fly from the north to the south for the winter in the Millennium. Because the swallow is a bird in the south, the word "return" is used to explain the swallow's southward migration.

Waiting for the third time: birds raise shame

The words "shame" and "shame" in "Birds Raising Shame" are interchangeable with the meaning of food, so "raising shame" means storing food. This means that birds begin to store food for winter.

This is described in ancient books. "Yi Zhou Shu Shi Xun" said: "On the day of the Millennium, the geese came, the mysterious birds returned on the fifth day, and the birds were ashamed on the fifth day." You Zhu once explained: "Those who raise shame, storing food for the winter, are ashamed of hiding treasures." In addition to migrating south, there are many birds that stay in the local area for the winter, such as sparrows and magpies, but because there is not much food to eat in winter, these birds will start to store food for the winter after the arrival of the Millennium.

Third, the solar terms of agricultural activities in the Millennium:

The Millennium solar terms are busy all over the country, but the crops harvested in different places are different. For example, in North China and Northeast China, millet, sorghum, soybeans and new cotton are mainly harvested. Autumn harvest crops such as yellow rice, millet, corn and sweet potato in southwest and northwest China. There is a busy scene everywhere, as the proverb goes, "The dew is boundless, and the millet is full of yellow fields."

At the same time, all localities should plant spring wheat or winter wheat in time and deliver fertilizer in time, otherwise the wheat will not grow well next year. As the saying goes, "White dew wheat, continuous cropping of manure."