The weather in Maiqiu Mountain

Simply put, phenology is the germination, flowering, fruiting and withering of plants and the migration and hibernation of some animals, which reflects the changes of climate and seasons. From this perspective, China's ancient poems contain extremely rich phenological knowledge.

For example, "the peach blossoms outside the bamboo are three or two, and the ducks in the spring river are prophets." (Su Shi titled Hui Chong's Night Scene of the Spring River) In early spring, ducks first felt the spring water heating and played in the water.

"Frozen waterfowl live together in cold weather, and one hundred is a group play. When pedestrians can't stand it, they suddenly smell the ice ring in Qi Fei. " (Qin Guan's Return from Guangling) At the end of winter, water birds are dependent on each other, and there is the sound of ice, and birds fly in surprise. Ducks and birds are messengers of spring.

"It rains at home in Huangmei season, and frogs are everywhere in the grass pond." Three kinds of images in Zhao Shixiu's poem "A Heart on a Water Threshold" show the seasonal characteristics of plum blossom and Huang Shi in late spring and early summer.

Huang Chao wrote the title of chrysanthemum: "The west wind is rustling all over the courtyard, and the cold butterfly is hard to come." Chrysanthemums wither, butterflies wither, although there is no word "autumn", but the coolness of autumn is coming.

As for Li Bai's "Xia Sai Qu", it leads readers to another world: "In May, the snow in Tianshan Mountain is cold without flowers, and the willow is heard in the flute, but no spring scenery is seen." May is in midsummer, and it is already the day when all the flowers in the mainland are dying. However, Tianshan Mountain (Qilian Mountain), located in the northwest frontier, is still covered with snow, and there are no willows and flowers, indicating that there is neither summer nor spring and autumn in the Yellow River basin above 4000 meters above sea level. It is not difficult to see the great difference in climate between the mainland and the Great Wall.

The agricultural and military activities of the ancients are also often seen in ancient poems involving phenology. For example, Fan Chengda's "Four Seasons of Pastoral Fun": "Butterflies have entered cauliflower, and no guests have come to Tianjia for a long time." These two poems, written in the countryside in the late spring of Jiangnan, set off the busy farming of peasant women through the description of butterflies entering cauliflower. Let's look at Wen Tong's "Morning Clear to Baoenshan Temple": "The smoke is far away, and the sky is high. Barley doesn't enter the nursery at night, and young silkworms lie alone. " The first part depicts a vivid picture of wild birds flying in the distant mountains and forests; The second part is about the busy scene of peasant women harvesting wheat, whole vegetables, picking mulberry and feeding silkworms at the turn of spring and summer, which is kind and touching. And Lulun's "high in the faint moonlight, geese flying, Tatar chiefs fleeing in the dark. While we chase after them, the horse carries a light load, and the bow and sword bear a burden of snow "(the third part of the next song) is about marching and fighting: the enemy fled at night, and the geese were surprised to fly, which aroused the vigilance of our general and led troops to chase after the enemy, fully demonstrating the heroic spirit of the people of China.