Living Well With The Seasons Part One

Traditional Chinese people have been using the Chinese twenty-four seasons solar terms (Jie Qi 节气) for over two thousands years to increase success in farming, prevent disease and live a well balanced, long life according to the seasons. Living Well With The Seasons Part One introduces this tradition wisdom and defines the terms.

Twenty-Four Seasons Solar Terms

Wikipedia states, “The solar terms refer to the twenty-four seasons and the climate. They are the calendar notes used to guide farming in ancient China. The East Asian traditional summer calendar (Lunar calendar) is a kind of “yin and yang calendar”, which is based on the daily and monthly operations.”

The discovery of these terms was achieved by millions of Chinese people working in the fields observing how weather and seasonal changes affected the health of crops, how crops grew and matured, and how weather patterns affect the human body.

The ancient Chinese had a concept called “Tian 天 Ren 人 He 合 Yi 一”, which means people should live in unity with their environment — specifically the seasons, geographic locations, weather patterns, and crops produced in the local area. They used the twenty-four seasons to live their daily lives more efficiently, allowing them to reap double the benefit with half the effort.

Chinese Holidays and the Seasons

Chinese holidays revolve around the celebration of Chinese seasonal changes. Yes, if you follow Chinese twenty-four season calendar, you will have a lot of holidays to celebrate! Hey, why not! Live well and abundantly with half the effort and celebrate holidays frequently.

Chinese wisdom is often conveyed in song. Here is the ancient song in pinyin and in Chinese simplified characters to help you to remember the name of the twenty-four seasons. If you do not know Chinese, then please skip to the next section.

Chinese 24 Season song

Chun Yu jing chun qing gu tian
Xia man mang xia shu xiang lian
Qiu chu lu qiu han shuang jiang
Dong xue xue dong da xiao han

春雨惊春清谷天
夏满芒夏暑相连
秋处露秋寒霜降
冬雪雪冬大小寒

Twenty-Four Chinese Solar Terms in 2019 & 2020

Solar Terms	2019 Dates	2020 Dates	Meanings

Spring

Start of Spring	Feb. 4	Feb. 4	The spring season begins.
Rain Water	Feb. 19	Feb. 19	The amount of rainfall increases.
Insects Awaken	Mar. 6	Mar. 5	Insects are awakening from winter sleep by the spring thunder.
Spring Equinox	Mar. 21	Mar. 20	The mid-point for the spring season; Day and night are equally long on the day.
Pure Brightness	Apr. 5	Apr. 4	It is warm, bright and everywhere gets green; It is also the time for tending graves.
Grain Rain	Apr. 20	Apr. 19	Rainfall increases which is helpful to grain crops.

Summer

Start of Summer	May 6	May 5	The summer season begins.
Grain Full	May 21	May 20	Grains are getting plump but not ripe yet.
Grain in Ear	Jun. 6	Jun. 5	Wheat grows ripe marking the beginning of a busy farming season.
Summer Solstice	Jun. 21	Jun. 21	The sun altitude arrive the highest in north; It has the longest daylight of the year.
Slight Heat	Jul. 7	Jul. 6	The hottest days are yet to come.
Great heat	Jul. 23	Jul. 22	The hottest time of the year.

Autumn

Start of Autumn	Aug. 8	Aug. 7	The autumn season begins.
The End of Heat	Aug. 23	Aug. 22	The hot summer is coming to an end and heat stops.
White Dew	Sep. 8	Sep. 7	It is getting cooler and dewdrops appear on grass and trees in the morning.
Autumn Equinox	Sep. 23	Sep. 22	The midpoint for the autumn season; The temperature begins to decrease; Day and night are equally long on the day.
Cold Dew	Oct. 8	Oct. 8	The dews are becoming frost.
Frost Descent	Oct. 24	Oct. 23	Frost appears and the temperature begins to descent.

Winter

Start of Winter	Nov. 8	Nov. 7	The winter season begins.
Light Snow	Nov. 22	Nov. 22	It begins to snow but can’t accumulate a lot on the ground.
Heavy Snow	Dec. 7	Dec. 6	It begins to snow heavily.
Winter Solstice	Dec. 22	Dec. 21	It has the shortest day of the year; After the day, many places in China go into the coldest period; People in northern China eat dumplings on the day and sweet soup balls for the people in the South.
Lesser Cold	Jan. 6, 2020	Jan. 6, 2021	It is getting colder, but the coldest days are yet to come.
Greater Cold	Jan. 20, 2020	Jan. 20, 2021	It is the coldest time of the year.