First, the origin of the Millennium solar terms:
The origin of the Millennium solar terms comes from the ancients' understanding of the law of the sun's operation.
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 changing angle, the position of the sun in a year is divided into twenty-four equal parts, each of which 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, and thus 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 we see now finally appear.
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: "Water and soil condense into dew, autumn belongs to gold, and gold and white alternate with each other, white is dew, and gas begins to be cold".
The water vapor generated on the ground condenses into dew, which belongs to gold and is white in autumn, so white is the color of autumn dew, and the appearance of white dew also means that the weather is getting colder.
The "white" of the Millennium is based on the ancient yin-yang and five elements. The ancients believed that spring belongs to wood, summer to fire, winter to water and autumn to gold, while gold is white, wood is cyan, water is black, fire is red and soil is yellow. Therefore, the color of autumn is white, which makes the solar term that should be called autumn dew finally named "White Dew", which is a more cultural name.
Second, the Millennium three wait:
In ancient China, the vernal equinox was divided into three periods: one was 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, each of which lasted for five days. Then every five days according to the most unique weather conditions, animal and plant behavior and 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.
When I saw this meaning, I began to wonder why the geese should be "the departure of Hongyan" when they moved south in autumn. In fact, this is related to the habits of geese in the process of moving south and the misunderstanding of the ancients.
Every September or so, geese will begin to migrate from the breeding ground to the wintering ground in large numbers. Migration is often a collection 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 they will rest halfway and often move a batch to come back, so they brought the illusion of "geese coming" to the ancients. In fact, they are just passing by for a rest, not "rushing over" 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 of the south, so they used the word "return", which means to go home.
In the ancient book "Twenty-four solar terms", 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 to the south from the north. Yan is a bird in the south, so he came back.
This 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.
The third wait: birds bring shame
The words "shame" and "shame" in "flocks of birds raise shame" are interchangeable with food, so "shame" is to store 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. On the fifth day, the mysterious birds returned. On the fifth day, the birds raised their shame." You Zhu once explained: "Those who are honest and ashamed store food for the winter, just like hiding treasures and shame." In addition to migrating south, there are many birds staying in the area for the winter, such as sparrows and magpies, but since 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.
Three, the Millennium solar terms of farming activities:
The Millennium solar term is very 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. Everywhere presents a busy scene, 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 proverb goes: "White dew wheat, continuous cropping manure."