Entering China“Thunder and wind stun the household, the sky opens up and turns Hongjun”, “the beginning of the yang sting, Shaoguang earth week”, in the 24 solar terms, the sting is in the critical period of spring, the phenology of the day is in line with the description of “yang strong”, the name is also different, only it is directly related to the animals in nature. “Sting”, symbolizing many animals such as snakes and insects hibernating, “Erya” interpretation: “Sting, quiet.” “The Seventy-two Candidate Explanations of the Lunar Order” contains:
“Everything is shocked, and the earthquake is thunder, so it is said to be stung, and it is the stinging insect that is frightened and runs away.”
With the thawing of the land, the spring thunder rolls in, shocking thousands of living beings in the world, and the mighty spring breeze will sweep the world with the momentum of destroying the withering and decaying. From March 5 to 13, 1949, the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was successfully held in Xibaipo. The opening day of the conference coincided with the eve of the sting. The Second Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee drew up a blueprint for the development of New China and defined the major policies of New China in the military, political, economic, and diplomatic aspects. Mao Zedong solemnly put forward “two musts”:
“We must ensure that comrades continue to maintain a modest, prudent, not arrogant, and not rash style of work, and that comrades must continue to maintain a style of arduous struggle.”
Is “stinging” a direct name change from “stinging”?
In ancient books, the stinging solar term was once named “enlightenment”. “Zuo Chuan: Five Years of Huan Gong” contains: “All rituals are open to the suburbs. Kong Yingda Shu: “”Xia Xiaozheng” said: ‘The first month of the year. His “Biography” said: “Words begin to sting.” The Southern Song Dynasty’s “Chronicles of Sleepy Learning” said: “Change enlightenment to surprise, cover to avoid Emperor Jing.” However, the name was changed from Qi Zhen to “Shocking Sting”, not only to avoid the name of Emperor Liu Qi of the Han Dynasty, but also to change the meaning from “start” to “wake up”, reflecting the synchronous change in the time and order of this solar term. “Qi Ding” was originally close to the time of the beginning of spring, and the “Moon Order” contained: “The east wind thaws, the stinging insects begin to vibrate, and the fish are on the ice.” Zheng Xuan bet on Meng Chunyue’s “Stinging Insect Shizhen” article in “Moon Order”: “The beginning of the Han Dynasty also takes the sting as the middle of the first month. It is generally believed that in the Han Dynasty, with the revision of the calendar, the solar term was moved from the first month of the lunar calendar to February, and the position of the rainy solar term was reversed. However, in the “Huainanzi” in the early Western Han Dynasty, it was still the rain before it was stung, which caused many controversies among scholars in later generations.
The 24 solar terms recorded in the “Hanshu Legal Calendar” come from the “Three Unification Calendar” formulated by Liu Xin at the end of the Western Han Dynasty. The “Three Unification Calendars” originated from the “Taichu Calendar” formulated by Deng Ping, Luoxiahong and others during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Since the beginning of the “Taichu Calendar”, the return year has been divided into 24 qi, and the odd number of “qi” from the winter solstice is called the middle qi, and the even number of “qi” is called the solar terms, which are now collectively referred to as the 24 solar terms. According to the “Three Unification Calendar”, after the beginning of the spring solar term, it is a sting, and the “Book of Han” bets on the stunning solar terms quoted as “rain today”, and the rain solar terms bet “stinging today”. The Eastern Han Dynasty’s “Four-Minute Calendar” determines the order of the solar terms before the rain is stung. Ma Rong of the Eastern Han Dynasty explained in the “Monthly Questions and Answers”:
“The questioner said: ‘Neither do you use the “Three Unifications”, but take the sting as Meng Chunzhong, and the rain as the February Festival, both of which are “Three Unifications” law, so what is the sole use?’ Said: “Meng Chun Moon Order” said “The stinging insect began to shake”, in the first month also. If it rains at the beginning of spring, it rains in February. It is used in combination. ’”
The 24 solar terms, which are used to guide agricultural work as a time series, are closely related to the actual observation of phenology by ancient people. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Yellow River Basin experienced a change in climate from cold to warm and then to cold, and the phenological characteristics also changed. Wang Pengfei, a Chinese meteorologist, believes that the ancients have found that the climate is colder when the rain precedes the sting, “there is a phenology of stinging insect activity before and after the rain, but the degree of vigorous activity is different…… The stinging insects are unearthed to indicate that the soil temperature is high, and the thunder indicates that the atmosphere has become unstable. Although rain also indicates that the temperature of the low air is high, which is enough to make the snowflakes melt into rain, the criticality of its appearance is not as strong as that of stinging. ”
When Huainanzi was written, it was in the cold period, and the rainfall was earlier than the activity of the stinging insects, so the rain first and then the sting; When the Western Han Dynasty formulated the “Taichu Calendar”, the climate was warmer, and with the rise of temperature in spring, the time of stinging insect activity was earlier than the time when the rainfall increased, so the sting was in advance; The climate between the two Han Dynasty changed from warm to cold, and the “Quadrangular Calendar” was adjusted to rain first. Later, the observation and division of solar terms no longer relied on the specific phenology of a certain stage, the order of rain and stings was fixed, and the main phenology of stings also changed from “fish on ice” to “peach Shihua, cang Gengming, eagle turned into dove” in spring. After the Tang Dynasty, the name “Qi Zhen” was once reused, but the word “Qi Zhen” was still used in the “Great Yan Calendar”, which is still used today.
The thunder is earth-shattering, and it is not broken or standing
After the sting, it means that thunder and lightning, which are natural phenomena, will appear more and more frequently. The ancestors have a long history of reverence for thunder, describing the thunder as “the sound of heavenly wrath”. According to the “Historical Records of Yin Benji”, the Shang Dynasty monarch Wu Yi was tyrannical and unreasonable, and he was punished by heaven for “shooting the sky”, “thunderstorm, Wu Yi was shocked to death”. “The Book of Rites: Yuzao”: “The gentleman’s residence is always in charge, and the head of the east is always sleeping, if there is a strong wind, thunder, and rain, it will change, although the night will be prosperous, and the clothes will sit with a crown.” In this way, it reflects self-vigilance and self-reflection.
In the imagination of the ancients, thunder was controlled by a special thunder god. “The Classic of Mountains and Seas, the East of the Sea”: “There is a thunder god in Leize, with a dragon body and a human head, and a bulging belly. In Qu Yuan’s “Lisao”, the thunder god is named “Fenglong”: “I ordered Fenglong to be cloudy and seek the place of the concubine.” In the Han Dynasty, the image of the god of thunder has been more personified, Wang Chong’s “On Balance” recorded the common portrait of the god of thunder at that time: “Another figure, if the face of the wrestler, called the thunder gong, so that the left hand leads the drum, the right hand pushes the vertebrae, if the shape of the blow.” Li Bai has a poem: “Lei Gong Bang Earthquake Drum”. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the image of the god of thunder with a drum force was basically replaced by the image of the god of thunder with a bird’s beak and wings. The sound of thunder is like beating a drum and a car, so in mythology, there is a fairy who pushes a cart for the god of thunder, named Ah Xiang. In addition to beating the thunder drum, the thunder god also uses the thunder axe and thunder to send out thunderbolts, representing the heavens to punish those who do evil.
From March 5 to 7, 1989, the World Conference on Saving the Ozone Layer was held in London, England. The conference aimed to mobilize developing countries to join the Montreal Protocol and agree that industrialized countries should reduce the use of chlorofluorocarbons by 50% within the 20th century, so as to combat climate change and explore effective sustainable development pathways. In 1991, China formally joined the revised Protocol, contributing China’s strength to promoting the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Although there are some coincidences in this time, it will still remind people of the meaning of the sting, both “broken” and “standing”.
Spring already gives people the feeling of “some is work, some is hope”, and the image of sting is implicitly related to the vitality of all things. In the Yuan Dynasty’s “Seventy-two Candidate Explanations of the Moon Order”, the definition of stinging: “Stinging, February Festival, everything is shocked, and the earthquake is thunder, so it is called stinging.” This exposition comes from “Zhou Yi • Hexagram Biography”: “All things are shocked, and the east is also shocked.” In Tao Yuanming’s “Quasi-Ancient” of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the first thunder and the ensuing good rain made all things grow and stretch: “When it rains in mid-spring, the first thunder sends to the east.” All the stings are terrifying, and the grass and trees are vertical and horizontal. ”
The stinging insect was unearthed, and the February dragon raised its head
Zhang Yuangan of the Northern Song Dynasty “The Book on the Fourteenth Day of the First Month of Jiaxu Saw the Coming Day Sting Festival”:
“When you get old, you can’t be thrifty, and the lights are thundering at night. There was a big earthquake, and the earthworms, shrimps, and toads also came out. ”
The spring thunder stung, and it was not only the common insects that were startled, but also the imaginary dragon. It just so happens that the time of the second day of the second lunar month is often close to the solar term of the sting, or even coincides, and the folk proverb of “the second day of February, the dragon raises its head” also has a profound connection with natural phenomena.
“February 2” can be traced back to the time of Tang Dezong, the beginning of February must be the “Neutralization Festival”, the folk to green bags to hold 100 grains and fruits to give each other, Li Lu brewed Yichun wine to pray for a good year, 100 officials into the agricultural book to show the book, and later moved to the second day of February. The Qing Dynasty’s “Chronicles of the Age of Yanjing” contains:
“On the second day of February, the ancient middle and the festival also. Today, people call it a dragon, and raise its head. It is called dragon scale cake for those who eat solar cakes, and dragon beard noodles for those who eat noodles. The needlework was stopped in the boudoir, and the dinosaur was also injured. ”
Before and after the “dragon raises its head”, the ground is warm, the spring rain is falling, and farming is getting busier and busier. Wei Yingwu of the Tang Dynasty wrote in a poem:
“The light rain is new, and a thunder starts. The Tian family has a few days of leisure, and farming has started from here. ”
The ancients believed that the dragon was the head of the scale insects, and the dragon was hidden by a hundred insects. Jin Dynasty Pang Zhu has a poem “Spring Thunder Sting”:
“Thousands of leaves are exquisite, and the green on the edge of the withered bushes is thick. When the spring thunder starts, there should be Ge Pilong. ”
Where is the Dragon on February 2nd? It is the Seven Houses of the Oriental Canglong in the vast heavens: Jiaosu, Kangsu, Disu, Fangsu, Xinsu, Tail, and Keiju. In the winter of the Northern Hemisphere, the Seven Nights of the Dragon are hidden below the horizon as far as the eye can see. The ancients found through observation that the seven nights of the dragon “ascend to the sky at the spring equinox, and dive into the abyss at the autumn equinox”, with the arrival of spring, the bucket handle of the Big Dipper points eastward, and the seven nights gradually rise in the night sky, which is commonly known as “the dragon raises its head”. The direction of the handle of the Hokuto is the one that symbolizes the dragon’s horn. Lu You wrote in the poem: “I want to hold the Big Dipper, and the long finger Canglong will not waver”, so as to pray for the four seasons of Changchun.
In the pre-Qin period, the horizon of Jiaosu could be observed at night around the second day of the second lunar month, which laid the basis for the astronomical foundation of “seeing the dragon in the field” in the Qiangua. Due to the precession, more than 2,000 years later, in modern times, the date of the rise of Kakujuku has actually been delayed. Perhaps it is precisely because of the imagery of dragons and rainfall and insects that although one is a festival and the other is a solar term, many folk customs on February 2 overlap with the sting, and it is difficult to clearly distinguish them.
Welcome the dragon to repel insect pests, smell the thunder and hit the villain
Before and after the sting, the people should not only invite the dragon that spreads the clouds and rain, but also drive away the harmful insects, and bless the safety of people and animals with the help of the dragon. The Qing Dynasty people wrote in the poem: “It is said that the dragon raises its head on this day, and the dinosaur has not yet rested.” If you want to take advantage of the wind and clouds, it is rare to be in the depths of the pond and hide and cultivate. “Qianjin Yue Order” contains: “On the day of stinging, take lime grits outside the threshold, and you can eliminate insects and ants.” The Ming Dynasty’s “Imperial Scenery and Things” contains: “When I first heard thunder, I shook my clothes, and said that fleas and lice were not born.” “On the second day of the second month of February, all over the place, especially in the north, in the old days, sprinkled ash and sprinkled water in the form of “leading the dragon”, Changping in the suburbs of Beijing, “scattering ash on the ground, called the dragon”, Zhaozhou, Hebei Province, “enclosing the house with stove ash, and removing a hundred insects”, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao and other places in Hebei, sprinkled the head on the ground with different dragon shapes, “leading the well to the well with ash, leading the urn from the well, and calling it the dragon into the house”, and Shanxi Lou annoyed “drawing water from the outside to be sprinkled by the gate, which is called leading the dragon”. On the second day of February, many places have to specialize in haircuts, called “shaving the dragon’s head”, and the Jiaodong Peninsula also nailed the “dragon tail” to the child’s hat on the second day of February, cut it into uniform small pieces with flower cloth, and wear it into a dragon’s tail shape at intervals with the straw, so as to bless peace.
Before and after the sting, many places and spring thunder sounded together, as well as the crackling sound of homemade rice flowers in every household. Commonly referred to as “fried insects”, it carries the hope that the farmland will not be infested by insects. The crackling sound of grain particles in a hot pan is said to deter pests from doing evil. Traditionally, rice, wheat, or beans are fried in a hot pan until they swell and burst. One of the origins of this custom comes from the tradition of the ancients in the first month of the year. “Po Lou” is a visual description of the sound of rice grains bursting, and the Ming Dynasty wrote in the poem:
“Throw down the golden millet from the pot and turn it into a white jade flower. The pink beauty accounts for the happy event, and the white-headed old man asks about the career. ”
The fuller the burst of rice, the more abundant the harvest in the fields, and people also use this method to predict the luck of the new year. In the Hebei region of the Ming Dynasty, on the second day of February, each family made fried pancakes or fried cakes, called “smoked insects”, the oil fragrance can lead the dragon out, and can smoke away hundreds of insects, which is to kill two birds with one stone.
In Guangdong, Hong Kong and other places, there are still folk customs of sacrificing the white tiger and beating the villain on the day of stinging. In folk beliefs, the white tiger is in charge of tongue and right and wrong, so the white tiger must be sacrificed before beating the villain. People make tigers out of paper, put a piece of raw pork on its mouth, and coax it to the fullest, eliminating the possibility of hurting people. In some places, after the white tiger is sacrificed, the paper tiger is burned or the tiger’s head is cut off to prevent future troubles. Hitting the villain needs to entrust a specific “thug” to be implemented under the dark bridge, while slapping the villain made of paper with slippers, while reciting the “mantra” that rhymes with ruts, hoping that with the help of the righteousness of heaven and earth brought by the sting, the whole year will be smooth and will not be harmed by the villain.
