The legend of solar terms in Xiao Man
Once upon a time, there was a family with only father and daughter. The daughter is not only beautiful, but also smart. On this day, my father had something to go far away, leaving his daughter and a white horse. This horse is very strong, running thousands of miles every day, as fast as the wind. More strangely, this horse is very familiar with human nature, and it can understand people's words. Everyone says this is a "god horse".
When the father went out, he told his daughter to feed and take good care of the horse, and he would come back soon. After my father left, this horse was the only one left at home to accompany my daughter. Whenever she feels lonely, she talks to the horse. Although the horse can't talk, it will nod and wag its tail to show affection. As the days passed, my father never came back. My daughter misses her father very much and is more worried about what will happen if her father has an affair.
One day, she said to the horse half seriously and half jokingly, "Ma, do you understand me?" If you can get my father back, I will marry you as my wife. "Unexpectedly, the girl voice down, the horse ran away and disappeared. It turned out that my father was sick in the distance and was worried about how to get back, but suddenly he found his horse running, which was very surprising. Father rode home because he was too worried about his daughter and didn't think much.
When I got home, I was very happy when my long-lost father and daughter got together. Father felt that the horse had made great contributions, so he specially added grass and carefully fed it. But to his father's surprise, he was fed a lot of fine grass and forage, but the horse refused to eat a bite. Whenever he sees his daughter coming in and out, the horse will not only sing by the neck, but also jump around and make a sound of joy or anger. The father secretly asked his daughter what was going on. So the daughter told her father what she said to the horse.
After listening to this, my father felt very uneasy. He thought for a moment and whispered to his daughter, "Remember, this matter must not be made public. What would it be like if people knew I married my daughter to a horse? Don't leave the house for a while, and don't go to see the horse. " The next day, my father put a crossbow around the stable and shot the horse when it was unprepared. Then he peeled off the horse's skin and hung it on a big stone in the yard.
One day, my daughter and the girl friend next door were playing in the yard. She was very sad when she saw the dried horse skin on the stone. She reached out and touched the mane on the horse skin. At this time, the accident happened. The horse skin suddenly split and swept her away like a gust of wind. The female companion on the side was frightened and hurried to tell her father. When the father arrived, the daughter and the horse skin basking in the stone had already disappeared without a trace. It turned out that Shenma skin swept away the lovely girl and went straight to the southwest. In the far southwest, there is a place called Hu Da, which is a desolate wilderness and the mountains are covered with mulberry trees. But when she got there, the girl in horse skin lost her original shape and became a silkworm with the shape of a horse's head and climbing on a tree. She only eats mulberry leaves. Later, she became the owner of this mulberry forest, and the emperor named her the silkworm god.
Faced with this kind of experience, the girl has unspeakable pain. She misses her hometown, her father and her companions day and night. Whenever this time, she will constantly spit out filaments from her mouth, with endless thoughts. Every spring, you can see a beautiful young woman kneeling on the branches of mulberry trees, constantly spitting out white and bright filaments. People affectionately call her the silkworm god girl.
Legend has it that the silkworm goddess was born on the day of "Xiaoman", so there will be a custom of offering sacrifices to silkworms in this solar term.
The meaning of Xiao Man San Hou
Waiting for the bitter vegetable show: the "bitter vegetable show" on the day of Xiaoman, bitter vegetable, perennial compositae, blooming in spring and summer, bitter when feeling angry, edible when tender;
Second, weeds die: in the last five days, "weeds die". According to Zheng Xuan's explanation in the Eastern Han Dynasty, weeds are fine-leaved grasses, such as water chestnut grass, which blooms in March and bears fruit in April. Because it was born in Yin Qi, I was afraid that Yang Qi would die in summer;
Third, wait for the solstice of autumn: on the fifth day, summer wheat can be harvested.
Why are the 24 solar terms not full?
"Small and full, the wheat is getting fuller and fuller." When the ancestors named "Xiaoman", they expressed a kind of joy that the harvest was coming soon. Wheat is full of milk and ripe, and the seeds begin to be full, so it is called Xiao Man.
If you carefully observe the 24 solar terms, you will find that many of them are relative. There is slight heat, heavy snow and slight cold. One more thing, there is only a small full and no big full. "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" says: "Full, overflowing." As the saying goes, "when the water is full, it will overflow, and every month it will lose money." So everything in life can't be "full", and when it is full, it will lead to losses.
Little people are full without loss, full without profit, full without overflow. Confucian tradition in China pays attention to the doctrine of the mean, and taboo "over-satiety" or "over-satiety".
Everything has its own development limit. Once this limit is reached or exceeded, it will tend to fall or turn in the opposite direction. Therefore, there is a saying that "all bets are off, but modest gains are made" and "extremes meet". Therefore, when the ancestors named the 24 solar terms, they only set a small full, not a big full.
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1 Gong Bao in kung pao chicken refers to the inventor of this dish and the honorary title of Ding Baozhen.
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