The modern meaning of the twenty-four solar terms: astronomical programming, humanistic programming, happiness programming

　　The modern meaning of the twenty-four solar terms

　　Newspapers & Magazines Guangming Daily

　　Author: Guo Wenbin

Dragon Boat Festival is here again.

In my short story "Auspicious Ruyi", which won the Lu Xun Literature Award, I once wrote about the Dragon Boat Festival.

People always ask me why I wrote the Dragon Boat Festival so beautiful, fragrant, colorful, joyful, auspicious, and wishful.

I said, indeed, in my memory, the Dragon Boat Festival is fragrant.

"May and June are awakened by incense", when I wrote this sentence on the manuscript paper, I entered another time and space tunnel, its name is Dragon Boat Festival.

"May" is the elder sister, and "June" is the younger brother. The story of the Dragon Boat Festival started when the sister and brother were "awakened by incense".

It is not only the fragrance of "sweet glutinous rice grains", but also the fragrance of "purse", the fragrance of wormwood, the fragrance of "May 5th", and the fragrance of "heaven", "earth" and "people". fragrance".

It is this kind of "fragrance" that pervades the sky and the earth that makes the Dragon Boat Festival "perfect" and "good luck" on "May 5th".

It is this "fragrance" that permeates my memory that makes me fascinated by the twenty-four solar terms in addition to traditional festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival. It took me twelve years to write the novel "Lunar Calendar", which was published in 2010. It has been reprinted more than ten times so far.

This long writing has given me a deeper understanding of the integrity of Chinese culture.

Eight years ago, I assisted CCTV in filming the large-scale documentary "Remember Nostalgia", which gave me a broader understanding of the integrity of Chinese culture.

The show was originally planned to shoot 100 episodes, but the audience was very welcome after it was broadcast. It was later expanded to 540 episodes, and 450 episodes have now been broadcast.

In my opinion, the integrity of this culture is reflected in the time system, which is the twenty-four solar terms; it is reflected in the maintenance of human vitality, which is to comply with the twenty-four solar terms.

As the saying goes, "people follow the earth, the earth follows the sky, the heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows the nature".

If I could sum it up in one word, it would be "中".

To this end, I have written many essays, which are included in the essay collection "In China".

This year, I cooperated with Ningxia Daily, and planned to record the twenty-four solar terms in one year. Eight episodes have been broadcast, and the response has been very good.

What makes me happy is that our planning is synchronized with the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is the prelude to the twenty-four solar terms.

I told the crew that in this recording, we tried our best to develop some content that audiences "Baidu" can't reach, focusing on developing functions that help people cope with the dilemma of modernity.

In my opinion, the twenty-four solar terms are the blessings of the ancestors of China to their descendants, as well as the blessings to mankind.

This incomparably beautiful blessing is contained in the exquisite programming that travels through time and space.

The twenty-four solar terms are astronomical programming

　　The twenty-four solar terms are a time system formed by our ancestors by observing the annual movement of the sun, and a complete system of wisdom formed by the ancestors' understanding of the changing laws of seasons, climate, and phenology in a year.

"Spring rains startle spring and clear valleys and sky, summer is full of mansions and summer heat is connected. Autumn is dewy, autumn is cold and frost falls, winter is snowy, snowy and winter is small and cold." We have memorized this "Twenty-Four Solar Terms Song" since we were young.

　　In the process of writing the novel "Lunar Calendar", I realized more and more clearly that the twenty-four solar terms are "humanities" formed by "astronomy" and "diwen" hand in hand.

It comes from the most realistic agricultural needs of the Chinese ancestors, that is, when to plant the seeds to get the best harvest.

Especially the people in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have only one opportunity to sow seeds a year. If there is no navigation on the twenty-four solar terms, it is very likely that the harvest will fail due to the wrong "time route".

　　Farmers know best that even if you miss a day or two of planting, the harvest will be far behind others, let alone half a month.

Two fields of the same family, one growing well and one not growing well, asked my father why.

He told me that the piece that did not grow well was because it was planted a day late.

　　The magic of the twenty-four solar terms is reflected in its precision.

　　Anyone who has grown up in rural areas can feel that the twenty-four solar terms are our life, because we grew up following this set of time lines.

"Before and after the Qingming Festival, plant melons and beans." In the past two days, my father and mother have been busy planting seeds.

"Don't laugh when wheat is in the field, it is only reliable when you receive it." That kind of race against time to grab food is really an extreme experience.

　　Our ancestors, in order to accurately determine the time, "look up to observe the image in the sky, look down and observe the law in the ground, observe the text of birds and beasts and the appropriateness of the earth, take the body near, and take things far away", "dry all day long, evening Be vigilant", day after day, year after year, without daring to make a slight difference, only then did the corresponding relationship between heaven, earth and man be established, and the time map that the Chinese nation has used for thousands of years was drawn.

　　The reason why Chinese people are so familiar with the twenty-eight constellations is to use them to reflect the earth and guide their lives.

At the beginning of dusk, the handle of the Big Dipper refers to the east, and all the world is spring; to the south, it is summer; to the west, it is autumn; to the north, it is winter.

The time system so determined finally became the calendar, and finally established as the lunar calendar.

　　It is the spirit of the lunar calendar that allows people to "combine their virtues with heaven and earth, their brightness with the sun and the moon, and their order with the four seasons", thus establishing a corresponding relationship between "heaven", "earth" and "personality", which has become a Chinese philosophy. The foundation of literature and aesthetics has also become the foundation of political science, economics, and sociology, as well as the foundation of medicine, health preservation, and life science.

　　"Look up to observe astronomy, and look down to observe geography, that's why we know the dark and bright."

The twenty-four solar terms are precisely the instrumentalization of this "gloomy".

　　This kind of "looking up" gave birth to the very developed astronomy in ancient China.

The ancestors used the standard scale to measure the length of the sun and shadow, and established the "Winter Solstice" and "Summer Solstice".

Then, through mathematical calculation, the sun's operation is divided into 24 equal parts, and the time of each solar term is established.

　　With precise visual timing, there is precise sowing.

With precise sowing, agriculture developed.

With the development of agriculture, there will be enough food.

With enough food, there is a growing population.

With the growing population, there will be the prosperity of humanities and the development of civilization.

　　According to legend, the Shixunjie in the Book of Yizhou, which was composed of the remaining chapters of the Book of Shang by Confucius, records the seventy-two marquises in detail.

Twenty-four solar terms appeared in the Western Han Dynasty "Huainanzi·Tianxun".

　　From this, we learned that five days are one wait, and three waits are one breath.

Each phenology has periodic natural phenomena such as animals, plants, birds, weather, etc. that change with the seasons, which is called "phenology".

For example, the mango species, the first time the mantis is born, the second time the dragon begins to sing, and the third time the anti-tongue is silent.

For example, in the summer solstice, the deer's antlers are resolved first, the cicadas begin to sing in the second, and the Pinellia is born in the third.

The same phenology changes according to the season, from "the sound of thunder" to "the sound of thunder begins to close", from "beginning of stinging insects" to "stinging insects", from "the arrival of the black bird" to "the return of the black bird", etc. .

　　The "Scrutiny of the Time" by a farmer, one of the hundred schools of thought, technicalizes the application of "harmony between man and nature" in agriculture, so that the twenty-four solar terms can fully correspond to agriculture.

　　The thought of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce in the Qin and Han Dynasties also provided strong policy support for the twenty-four solar terms, making it into the daily use of the common people.

　　Today, developed meteorology has not completely replaced the importance of the twenty-four solar terms in agriculture.

Sowing, weeding, harvesting, cultivating land, and raising moisture, people still have to turn over the old imperial calendar.

In my mind, in addition to its practical value, the old imperial calendar also has a special poetic and romantic sense.

When I was writing "The Lunar Calendar", the scene of my father reading the imperial calendar in the sunlight when I was a child reappeared in front of my eyes again and again.

　　His father's life of working on the loess is not an old imperial calendar.

His figure of working hard year after year facing the loess with his back turned to the sky reminds me countless times of the core essence of "Book of Changes": great virtue and self-improvement.

The twenty-four solar terms are humanistic programming

　　After I finished writing the "Lunar Calendar", I decided that humanities are the projection of astronomy.

For example, the spirit of self-improvement is what the ancients discovered and deduced from the 24-hour uninterrupted observation of celestial phenomena.

When the ancients observed the celestial phenomena, they saw that the celestial bodies were running continuously, and the meaning given to the humanities was the core spirit of Qian Gua - self-improvement.

　　Since humanities are the projection of astronomy, then, living in accordance with astronomy will lead to good luck and good luck.

　　To this end, our ancestors systematically programmed the humanities, and it was this wisdom-filled programming that gave birth to the philosophy of twenty-four solar terms.

Change, simplicity, difficulty, yin and yang, ebb and flow, movement and transformation are all in it.

"The winter solstice is born with a yang", "the summer solstice is born with a yin", "all things bear the yin and embrace the yang, and the qi is in harmony".

In the view of the ancients, "Qi" is both the state of existence and the way of existence.

This state and method, reflected in the rhythm, is the "section".

Its purpose is to ensure "China" and "Harmony".

Corresponding in the humanities, it is said in "The Doctrine of the Mean", "The undisclosed joy, anger, sadness, and joy are called "zhong;" when they are all in the middle, they are called harmony. Dao is also. To neutralize, the status of heaven is, and all things are nurtured."

　　This kind of neutralization philosophy allows the Chinese nation to avoid the simple thinking of either black or white or white or black, and learn to find yin in yang, and yang in yin.

Taoism uses Taiji diagram to express, Confucianism uses the golden mean.

Reflected in national governance, it is to pay equal attention to Germany and France; reflected in anthropological design, it is to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

　　If the wisdom of the twenty-four solar terms can be popularized among all human beings, many disputes in the world may be stopped, and human beings will be much more peaceful and peaceful.

Because the twenty-four solar terms are followed by astronomy.

　　The biggest revelation of astronomy to the humanities is the integrity.

In the essay collection "In China", I used a lot of words to expound the practical significance of the integrity of Chinese culture for human beings to get out of the predicament, and expounded the truth of "everyone must love".

Because "the sky is covered, the earth is loaded".

Because humanities originate from astronomy, and what heaven and earth show to human beings is wholeness.

　　Since heaven and earth are a whole, then to love others is to love oneself, and to hurt others is to hurt oneself.

　　Historically, we have tried to use legal means to abolish the lunar calendar and forcibly implement the Gregorian calendar, but it was unsuccessful.

Because it does not conform to the Chinese way of cognition, thinking, and behavior, and does not conform to the overall view of the Chinese people.

In the end, two sets of calendars are allowed to run in parallel.

　　Why did the ancients deify the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox, thinking they were two gods in the sky, the vernal equinox sacrificed to the sun and the autumnal equinox to the moon.

It is because they observed that the length of day and night is the same for these two days.

As the original coordinates of the twenty-four solar terms, it lays the foundation for the Chinese way of thinking, which is to "find the middle" everywhere.

　　This way of thinking of "finding the middle" allows the Chinese nation to uphold dialectical thinking and not go to extremes.

Immediately think of yin when it is extremely positive, and immediately think of yang when it is extremely negative.

When you are at an advantage, you immediately think of a disadvantage, and when you are at a disadvantage, you immediately see your advantage.

　　Recently, people often have a lot of fun arguing about some world events. It seems that both sides have their reasons.

From the perspective of "finding the middle", we will find that the contest between geographies is actually a cultural contest.

　　According to legend, when Yao gave the throne to Shun Chan, he said: "Zhi! Er Shun! The calendar of heaven is counted in Ergong, and if you allow it, the four seas are poor, and Tianlu will end forever." What does that mean?

That is to say, I will pass on this set of extremely clever calendars to you, and you will use it to find the "Zhong" and serve the people well.

If the people of the world fall into poverty, the position of honor given to you by God will end forever.

It can be seen that the middle way thinking comes from astronomy.

It can be seen that the real service is astronomical service and calendar service, and the real management is also astronomical management and calendar management, because it is the intermediary between heaven and earth.

From this, we can understand the meaning of the word "Son of Heaven".

The authority of the emperor comes from the unique astronomical observation and the unique calendar.

　　It is this unique space-time system that promotes the unification of the Chinese nation.

Because if it is split, it means that it cannot enter this calendar system.

　　This philosophy of "finding the middle" is used in health preservation, which is balance.

Suppress the prosperous and support the weak.

For this reason, the ancients said, don’t eat the liver in spring, don’t eat the heart in summer, don’t eat the lungs in autumn, and don’t eat the kidneys in winter.

　　In spring, you need to support the spleen more.

Because spring corresponds to the liver, the liver belongs to wood, the wood overcomes the earth, and the spleen belongs to the earth.

How to protect it?

Eat more yellow foods that correspond to spleen soil, such as millet, squash, bean sprouts, ginger, toon, etc.

In terms of taste, the sour taste enters the liver.

Therefore, eat less acid in spring, because acid enters the liver, which will make the liver fire prosperous.

At this time, it is necessary to appropriately increase sweets, because the sweetness enters the spleen.

　　This philosophy of finding "China" makes the Chinese pay special attention to "harmony between man and nature".

"Harmony between man and nature" allows Chinese people to learn to go with the flow and let nature take its course.

For this reason, one has to fight against the rhythm.

Because what the entire universe shows us is conformity and response.

What would it be like if the Earth did a figure skating one day and turned back around.

　　Human beings are a part of the universe, therefore, only with "shun" can we "harmonize", and only with "harmony" can we achieve good luck.

　　How to "come together"?

Comply with the solar terms.

For example, in spring, "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine" says, "Spring in the third month, this is the development. The heaven and the earth are born, and all things are prosperous. Lying at night and getting up early, walking widely in the courtyard, being sent to slow shape, so as to make one's aspirations; live and do not kill Give but do not take away, reward but do not punish, this is the response to the spring energy, and the way to maintain health; the opposite will damage the liver, and the summer will change to cold, and the elders are few.”

　　"Don't kill when born, give but don't take, reward but don't punish, this is the response of spring, and the way to keep healthy." This sentence tells us that we should eat less animal food in spring, and give and reward more.

Because, in the view of the ancients, when slaughtering animals, people must first move the killing intention, and the killing intention leads to the murderous intention and harms the vitality.

If people want to be healthy, they must grow health machines.

　　For example, in summer, "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine" says, "Xia Sanyue, this is called Fanxiu, heaven and earth are in harmony, all things are in full bloom, lie down at night and get up early, never tire of the sun, make ambition without anger, make Huaying become a show, make anger so bright Xie, if what you love is outside, this is the answer to summer qi, and the way to nurture longevity. If you don’t go against it, you will be sad, autumn will be malaria, there will be few people who receive it, and the winter solstice will be seriously ill.” Because it is too hot, it is greedy for coolness, and greedy for coldness. If the yang qi cannot be vented, the dampness will be trapped in the body, causing malaria in autumn and serious illness in winter.

　　When it is hot, it is fully exposed to heat, and when it is cold, it is fully exposed to cold. This is called nature.

"Man follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, the heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows the nature." The highest state of health preservation is this "nature".

The twenty-four solar terms are the "natural" timetable for Chinese people.

Twenty-four solar terms are happiness programming

　　In the process of writing the novel "The Lunar Calendar", one day, I suddenly realized that the rejuvenation of the earth, the redness of the peach and the green of willows, and thinking about it, are all controlled by temperature.

Every smear of green comes back to the world, every bud blooms, and the subtle changes are actually a little bit of yang qi between heaven and earth.

And this increased yang is actually the increment of sunlight.

The increment of sunlight comes from the angle increment of sunlight reaching the earth.

This angle comes from the "rhythm" of the earth's revolution around the sun and the "attitude" of the earth itself.

This "section", this "state", corresponds to the earth, which is "qi".

We all know that the earth revolves around the sun "slantingly".

It is this gradually "straightening up" of the sun that makes the earth full of spring and vitality.

　　It is this discovery that reminds me that in the human world, the love and warmth we can perceive comes from the sun, including the moonlight.

Since everything comes from this "Tai" and this "Yang", then we must learn from the sun, "to be in harmony with the sun and the moon".

　　If you savor the feeling of "combination" carefully, you will have a new understanding of the word "dedication".

The existence of the sun is burning, it is devotion.

At that time, some parents and teachers did not understand this teaching, so they just wrote it into the "Lunar Calendar".

When I was not confused, I started volunteering myself, and some of them can understand.

　　In 2012, I supported several colleagues to set up the Quan Philanthropy "Searching for Peace and Peace Class". The real sense of happiness made me feel that the father I wrote in "Lunar Calendar" was no longer a father in May and June. fictional characters, but myself.

I turn what I write into what I do.

Every day my mind is full of people and plans to help. There is no time for anxiety and sadness, and no time for selfishness and self-interest.

The kind of "selfless" happiness is more than winning any prize, any profit, and any name.

　　Only then did I understand that the meaning of life is dedication.

　　Last year, at the strong request of parents, Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House was going to publish a large-sized "Lunar Calendar" suitable for young people. Let me revise it.

When I read the words written more than ten years ago, and read the words from "Father" to May and June, to learn the sky, learn the earth, learn the sun, and learn the crops, the tears could not help shedding.

　　Thinking about the twenty-four solar terms, from the beginning of spring to the great cold, heaven and earth must provide air, water, and food to ensure the survival of all life, and these things that protect life are provided by heaven and earth for free.

　　I have been pondering over the word "grain rain". Everyone is talking about "rain produces a hundred grains", but ignores "the grain feeds the people".

Who created this grain, why sacrifice himself to feed mankind?

　　This, perhaps, is made in heaven, it is "nature".

Immediately, I understood why the opening chapter of "The Great Learning" said, "The way of the great university is to be virtuous, to be close to the people, and to stop at the ultimate goodness."

What is "Mingde", what is "Supreme Good", and "close to the people".

I also understand why the first chapter of The Analects says, "Learn and learn from time to time, is it not good to say it? It's a pleasure to have friends from afar? People who don't know but don't feel embarrassed, is not a gentleman?" What to learn, to learn the world Spirit, learn the spirit of the sun and the moon.

In this way, it can be "happy".

Only the "joy" of the spirit of the world, the sun and the moon, can inspire friends from afar.

Only this kind of "joy" that can understand the spirit of heaven and earth, the sun and the moon, can "people not be ignorant but not shy".

Just think, if heaven, earth and sun and moon are depressed when they do not hear praise, and withdraw their light, it will not be sun and moon.

　　Suddenly, I have a new understanding of "people follow the earth, the earth follows the sky, the heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows the nature".

This "nature" is "nature", which is a kind of love and devotion without a reason.

　　This kind of mental process helped me to understand the "nature" mentioned by Lao Tzu more deeply.

　　Gradually, I came to understand what "comfort" is.

Without "naturalness", it is difficult to be "comfortable".

It also made me understand what "confidence" means, without "comfort", there is no "confidence".

　　The Chinese nation is a confident nation, which is related to our free culture.

　　Any culture of freedom can be tested by time, such as the twenty-four solar terms.

　　"Spring has hundreds of flowers and autumn has the moon, summer has cool breeze and winter has snow, if you have nothing to worry about, it is a good time in the world." This verse by Wumen Huikai really brings home the culture of freedom.

Fully enjoying the process and enjoying every "spot" of life is the true meaning of happiness science.

　　But now, purposeful happiness has replaced process happiness.

Isn't this too bad?

Children have to exchange nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine "hardships" of study for the "sweetness" of an admission letter, so that "learning and learning from time to time, not talking about it" becomes "hardship", How many students do not want to look at their textbooks after the college entrance examination.

This is a dead end that purposeful happiness cannot solve.

　　The happiness course that the ancient sages and sages gave us is to live "on the spot", and to make every "moment" in the whole process be happy.

As far as students are concerned, the "sweetness" of nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine learning processes must be exchanged for the "sweetness" of a greater result, in order to truly realize the "sweetness" that the Master said.

　　Targeted happiness often takes life away from the scene, and if life leaves the scene for a long time, there will be problems.

　　I let the children aestheticize and bliss the life process, make the process itself a goal, fully live in the scene, live in the happiness of the moment, and live in the happiness of a simple life.

Be happy when you sow, be happy when you cultivate, not just when you harvest.

This is how the poetry of life was born.

Soon they will discover the beauty of detail, a flower, a grass, a ray of sunshine, a wisp of wind.

　　From this, we will find that the ancients lived in a kind of poetry of farming and reading, and they lived in the carnival of farming poetry.

But now, how many people have lost their farming and reading, and live in a kind of "conceptual happiness" every day, living in a frenzy of information, living in plans, efficiency, mobile phones, and the Internet.

Gradually, the "reality" of life is lost, the "sense of presence" is lost, anxiety comes to you, and depression comes to you.

　　As a result, it is very wise for the state to expand education from "moral, intellectual, physical" to "moral, intellectual, physical, and beautiful."

　　The twenty-four solar terms provide a kind of "natural time" which is different from the modern "efficiency time".

The time in the twenty-four solar terms is alive, alive, warm, and breathable.

It personifies and aestheticizes the relationship between heaven, earth, people and things, and it also gives the wholeness of Chinese culture an amiable firework atmosphere.

　　At one point, our "natural time" was replaced by "efficiency time". The sound of wind and rain left our life, and the sound of birds and flowers left our life. Over time, we were surrounded by a huge "coldness", including teenagers.

What the consequences are, we all know.

　　It can be said that the twenty-four solar terms itself is the educational programming of our ancestors. It is not only our way of cognition, but also our way of thinking and behavior. Of course, it also determines our academic paradigm.

　　The twenty-four solar terms are great education.

　　I am delighted to see that twenty solar terms education is entering the campus in different ways.

　　During Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chongyang Festival and other festivals, many schools organize students to collectively recite the corresponding chapters of the "Lunar Calendar", and some schools arrange programs to be staged.

When I was invited to watch the children's innocent and lovely performance, a voice would ring in my mind-

　　Isn't this lunar calendar, these 24 solar terms, the astronomical programming, humanistic programming, educational programming, happiness programming, and even anthropological programming of our ancestors?

(Author: Guo Wenbin, Chairman of the Ningxia Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Chairman of the Writers Association)