[Explanation] July 7th is the "Little Heat" in the twenty-four solar terms.
There is a folk saying that: after the small summer heat, the heat is three-thirds a day, which vividly describes the high temperature of the small summer solar term.
The "dog days" that make people talk about hot color changes will also come during the small summer period.
So, what methods did the ancients have to cool off the heat?
Experts say that as early as the Zhou Dynasty, the ancients learned to store ice cubes for summer drinking.
In addition, many ingenious summer tools have been invented.
[Concurrent] Tang Zhiqiang, Secretary General of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Protection and Inheritance Alliance
Especially in the north, it has a custom of accepting ice cubes.
In fact, this custom began in the Zhou Dynasty. In order to ensure that there are ice cubes in the summer, the Zhou royal family also set up a corresponding management agency. The person in charge of ice is called Lingren.
In the Western Han Dynasty, 7 big wheels with a length of 1 zhang were invented and turned into big fans. When one person is turning it, you will feel shivering when the whole house is full.
There is also a kind of water pavilion in the past, where the cold water is pumped to the roof by a waterwheel, and then seeps down from the roof to form a water curtain, and then arouses the cool air, allowing the water to take away the hot air.
[Explanation] Experts said that during the small summer season, there are many folk customs related to eating.
[Concurrent] Tang Zhiqiang, Secretary General of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Protection and Inheritance Alliance
Two meals are to eat new, to eat new. At this time of the small summer solar term, the summer grains have not been harvested. The farmers will use the new rice to prepare meals for the ancestors of the god of five grains, and pray that the autumn grains will also be abundant.
Then it is to eat Fuyang. Now it is still the custom of eating Fuyang in Xuzhou, Jiangsu. Because Fuji has a bad appetite and will be malnourished, so it will not only strengthen nutrition, have wine and meat, and increase appetite. Increase human resistance.
[Explanation] During the small summer season, the temperature rises and the rain also increases.
In order to prevent mildew, since ancient times, folks have the custom of drying books and clothes during the small summer heat.
[Concurrent] Tang Zhiqiang, Secretary General of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Protection and Inheritance Alliance
One of the two dryings is for books. It is rainy in midsummer, and it is easy to get moldy, so when it is sunny, you should hurry up and come out to dry your books.
It is recorded that Xuanzang, a monk in Tang Dynasty, came back from the Western Heaven to get Buddhist scriptures. When crossing the sea, the scriptures were soaked by sea water. On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, he took the scriptures out and dried them, and later turned this day into a day for drying books.
There is also a drying of clothes, that is, the palace will dry the dragon robes for the emperor on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, and then it was spread from the palace to the people. Later, every household chose this time to dry clothes in front of the gate.
The various customs and methods of avoiding the summer heat during the small summer season are all very adaptable to the weather, and they all reflect a distinct ideological concept in China, that is, to accept the arrival of the summer heat happily.
The poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem about relieving the summer heat.
There is no long thing in front of you, and there is a cool breeze under the window.
Dissipate heat from the mind, and cool the room to empty the room.
At this time, it is more difficult to protect yourself and be the same as others.
Just a reminder to keep your mind calm in the heat of the heat.
Reporter Wang Shibo reports from Beijing
Responsible editor: [Li Ji]