How to count nine?

On the solstice after winter, the southern region is still sunny and sunny, with clear skies and Wan Li, while the northern region is cold and snowy, entering the cold winter season. Once upon a time, in order to spend the long winter, people used various interesting methods to count nine to eliminate the cold.

Add a pen every day, and when you fill out a picture, "write nine pictures to eliminate cold", it will become a file record of the winter weather in this year; Dye a petal every day, and dye all the plum petals with a colored pen, and it will be "nine". In cold weather, the ancients used elegance to resist the cold to drive away loneliness, and also ushered in the hope of spring.

The so-called "counting nine" means counting backwards every nine days from the winter solstice to the Sunday. The first nine days are called "the first nine" or "the first nine", the second nine days are called "the second nine", followed by "the third nine", "the fourth nine" and "the fifth nine" ... until "the ninth nine" * * eighty-one days.

Extended data:

"Nine" started from the winter solstice, because a sun was born on the winter solstice, and then the sun gradually became longer and the yin gradually disappeared. Counting nine times in nine days stems from the mathematical view of yin and yang in the Book of Changes. The Book of Changes means that Yang is nine and Yin is six, so "counting nine" is actually "counting Yang". Plus "nine" is the largest single digit and the largest positive number in single digits, and "nine-nine" is the largest double digit and the largest positive number in double digits. Counting "99" means that yang will "overcome" yin, and the cold corresponding to yin will be eliminated.

According to the solar terms and dates, the 8th1day after the winter solstice is about the 6th day after the fright. At this point, the cold has disappeared, and it is a February day when bloom is warm in spring and the grass grows and the warblers fly. Therefore, Zong Yi in the Southern Dynasties wrote in the Chronicle of Jingchu: "The number of winter solstice days is 9981, which is the end of the cold."

References:

People's Network-How to count nine in cold weather?