Literature Newspaper · Reading at night at the moment

The solar term is the background and time of Chinese survival, and it is also a guide to production and life. The solar terms are related to our feelings and cognition of life, nature, and the universe of life, and contain the wisdom and survival philosophy of the Chinese insight into heaven and earth, and are the reference for the ancestors to live in the world and live in peace. Revisiting the solar terms is not only a reminiscence of the pastoral, but also a journey of revisiting the past and learning the new. Only by understanding the many meanings of solar terms and regaining the rhythm and spirit of time can we establish our own life order and settle down in time.

"The Book of Time" is a "brief history of time" written by writer Yu Shicun that belongs to the Chinese. With grand strokes and unique perspectives, it introduces the common sense of solar terms in astronomy, climate, agriculture, health, history, aesthetics, and philosophical concepts.

The Book of Time

Author: Yu Shicun

Guomai Culture, Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House

行夏之時——關於二十四節氣（自序）

With the help of technology, human knowledge is moving down on a large scale. Confucius did not notice the significance of the evolution of technology and civilization platforms, and his "only knowledge from above and foolishness from below" seems reasonable, but in fact it is wrong. Before the monopoly of power, knowledge was also spread to every individual of human beings, who confidently and consciously invented and discovered, "more than three generations, everyone knows astronomy" is this phenomenon; Later, the power of the Jedi Heavenly Communication, the people could neither look at the sky, nor did they have the right to move freely on the earth, knowledge was published by the authority, and the people only had the obligation to study deeply.

Knowledge about solar terms, astronomical calendars, etc., is also monopolized by power and a small number of people. Whether in the countryside or in the city, there are not many people who know the time, the time of the day, the time of agriculture, the time of the child, the time of noon and their meaning. Until the Republic of China, the "Central Observatory of the Ministry of Education" had to formulate almanacs every year. In the 80s of the 0th century, market-oriented forces such as wall calendars and desk calendars broke the monopoly of power. Today, everyone knows how to ask the time, adjust the time, and time it.

The negative effects brought about by our intellectual history have not been effectively cleaned up so far, and we know that many phenomena, customs, and knowledge are true but do not know why they are, and we know that they exist but do not know all of them. The solar terms, the most well-known phenomenon of life and civilization in traditional China, are not only unknown to the common people, but also to talented scholars. Today's people have been unable to return to the mobile Internet composed of 1 and 0, and few people have gone deep into the coordinates composed of time and space to recognize their own position, and even fewer people have to distinguish the meaning of time and space.

Time and space are not uniform. Once the time is divided into two rituals and four images, such as spring, summer, autumn and winter, we must know that we grow in the spring, go out of the house, hide in the winter, converge in the autumn, and grow in the summer. Although the sages had an equanimity for time and were able to give alms in the "first day", "noon" and "day after tomorrow", there was still a difference between morning and evening. Wang Yangming even discovered the connection between time and the world: "People go through the ancient and modern worlds in one day, but people don't see their ears." When the night air is clear, ignore and listen, think and do nothing, and be indifferent, it is the world of Xihuang. On weekdays, he is refreshed and clear, and Yongyong Mumu is the world of Yaoshun. Before dawn, the ceremonial rendezvous, the weather is orderly, and it is the world of three generations. After the middle of the day, the spirit gradually dimmed, and the back and forth were disturbed, which was the Spring and Autumn Warring States World. Gradually the night is dark, everything sleeps, and the scene is lonely, which is the world where people and things are exhausted. ”

In an era of agriculture as a country in traditional society, time is far from being as simple as growing and collecting, and it is not as simple as princes and nobles, elites, and idlers. In the process of work, the ancestors gradually understood the importance of time, the plan of the year lies in the spring, and the plan of the day lies in the morning. Traditional farmers have no sense of time, especially modern time, but they not only follow the songs of the four seasons, but also distinguish more than 72 phenological migrations in a year. "When I see good rain falling on the rice fields, I praise, and when I see the stones in ignorance, I weep silently." Such poems are not peasant's. Farmers have a natural sense of fate for nature, birds, beasts, insects and fish, such as east wind, warm wind, cool breeze, cold weather, thunder and lightning rainbow; Such as plants, archipelagos, peach trees, paulownia trees, mulberry trees, chrysanthemums, bitter herbs; Such as wild geese, swallows, magpies, pheasants, tigers, jackals, trumpets, cuckoos, shrike birds, anti-tongue birds, goshawks, fireflies, crickets, praying mantises, silkworms, deer, cicadas, and so on. Farmers are one of them.

農民明白粗放與精細勞動之間的區別，明白農作物有收成多少之別，播種也並非簡單地栽下，而分選種、育種和栽種等步驟。農民中國的意義在今天仍難完全為人理解，中國農民參與生成了對人類農業影響極為深遠的水稻土。一百畝小麥可以承載的人口是多少呢？二十五人左右。一百畝玉米可以承載的人口大概是五十人，一百畝水稻可以承載的人口則是二百人左右。在農民這個職業上，中國（包括東亞）農民做到了極致。一個英國農學家在19世紀初寫的調查報告中認為，東方農民對土地的利用達到藝術級，一英畝土地可以養活比在英國多六倍的人口，套種、燃料、食物利用、施肥迴圈、土壤保護，都非常了不起……所有這些，與農民對時間的認知精細有關係。

The 24 solar terms are a unique contribution of Chinese civilization. With the help of solar terms, farmers freeze the year into the circular system of crop growth and collection, such as cultivation, fertilization, irrigation, and harvesting, and freeze time and production and life to the state of correspondence and even unity between man and heaven. "The sun rises, the sun rests." "A gentleman feasts on obscurity." Sometimes, there is a festival in the life society, and the human body and humanity have qi, and the solar terms not only become their own time coordinates, but also evolve into a temperament, reminding life for a hundred years, and we need to have spirit, keep and do. Like a peasant, Confucius observed, "The year is cold, and then the pine and cypress are withered." For this reason, he extended that "the three armies can win the commandery, but the husband cannot win the ambition", "the people with lofty ideals are benevolent, there is no survival to harm the benevolent, and there is a killing to become benevolent".

It can be said that China's long-standing spiritual temperament is the source of the solar terms in time. From solar terms to solar terms, it is still an important question for people to survive today: have we grasped the solar terms of time? Have we grasped the point of life? When looking back, you are worthy of the integrity of your life? If we are honest with ourselves, we should admit that we are cut off from heaven and earth, and that our contemporary people are engulfed by things such as society and technology, and have lost a sense of the biological world, the right time and place, and are almost ignorant of the nature of Taoism, and thus we have lost the spirit of our ancestors, not to mention integrity.

But in traditional society, people's feelings about heaven and earth, time and space are delicate. The transfer of time from the peasants, the abstraction and sublimation, and the deep study and contemplation of the sages and talents are not only the source of happiness in life and society, but also the source of meaning. There is a difference between time, time, time, and time, and people need to go with the time, and they can also move against the time, but they can't lose time. Once the philosophers understood the multi-dimensional types of time, their cognition of time could not help but have strong feelings. "Then Italy will come!" "It's a great righteousness when you escape!" That's timeliness. "It's a great time for the revolution!" "It's a great time to solve!" "It's a great time!" That's the time. When people's sense of time is disordered and society's sense of time is confused, sages or emperors will change the yuan and era names to adjust the time and time and unify their ideology. Of all these types of time, the time that is in harmony with the nature of heaven and earth is the most suitable for people. Although today's city dwellers have uncontrolled and irregular schedules, when they go to the countryside to rest for a day or two, their biological clocks will return to natural time and regain the rhythm and spirit of time. Naturally, poets and scholars of all generations have recited poems in the solar terms, and they have enriched the expression space of the Chinese language with the solar terms of heaven and earth, and also confirmed the truth and incredibleness of the solar terms of heaven and earth with the Chinese language.

If a solar cycle is divided into four symbols: spring, summer, autumn, and winter, there are four symbols of time and space in a year, and if it is divided into eight trigrams and eight sections, there are eight kinds of time and space in a year, we can understand that the more detailed Tai Chi is, the more specific the function of each time and space, and the clearer the meaning. This is also the reason why the 24 solar terms are not only related to farmers, but also to city people, and even more related to elite people. In the twenty-four dimensions of time, each dimension places demands on the life and people in it. A person who understands that the sun arrives in the southern hemisphere and then returns to the north, knows that at this time, life in the northern hemisphere is coming and going, and it cannot be arbitrary, "in and out without disease"; A person who deeply understands the logic of this time and space understands the profound meaning of the heart of heaven and earth. And if we know that the rain is coming, we know that farmers and the biological community are not only "good when it rains", but also think about prevention. We understand that during the great heat period, the river water and well water are turbid, and the weather is hot to prevent heatstroke, and someone needs to have a public welfare heart, and the essence of this time and space is not only to eliminate summer and obtain materials such as cooling, cooling, and heatstroke prevention, but also to improve public recognition and "work the people to persuade each other". Twenty-four solar terms, each time is a guide to human action, the winter solstice is coming, the gentleman sees the heart of heaven and earth; When the rain comes, the gentleman thinks about the prevention; When the heat comes, the gentleman persuades the people to work hard.

When I first wrote about solar terms, I gradually understood the meaning of time and space, and experienced the review of historical narratives, aesthetic narratives, and even good narratives. The solar terms are not only related to farmers and agriculture, not only related to health preservation, but also related to each of our feelings and cognitions of life, nature, life and the universe. Only by understanding the many meanings of solar terms can ordinary people understand the relationship between heaven and man, and can they remind themselves of their position in the hundred years of life. In the small cold solar term, you need to have a sense of economic development, in the big cold solar term, you need to have a sense of planning, and in the autumn equinox, you need to understand that there is no boredom in the autumn equinox...... The ancients called the five days "micro", the fifteen days as "on", more than five days is also called "one wait", fifteen days is a solar term, see the micro to know the same, and watch the waiting to know the festival, is the ancestors of the criteria for living in the world, but also their reference for life.

I realized that the essence of time and space has always been there, but whether it is a historical story or a poet's talent, it is only to explain and strengthen them in various ways. The nature of some planes still requires us to constantly refresh the past. While writing this short article, I reread the manuscript and found that there were still some materials that had not been added. For example, in June, time requires people not to be rude, my explanation of this is too straightforward, in fact, if attached to the life of rural people, when people are amazed at the coincidence. When the crops are ripe during the solar term, some people who see their neighbors, especially those second-rate people who do not want to get something from hard work, will bow their heads and pretend to pour the muck in their shoes when they pass by the wheat field, but in fact steal a few handfuls of wheat...... Therefore, when decent people pass by other people's farmland, they will not bow their heads to tidy up their shoes, so as not to misunderstand, which is "do not walk if you are indecent". Such a phenomenon can be understood by today's people as the result of the shortage of materials in the traditional rural society, but after passing through the melon and fruit farmland, there are not many people who take sheep by the hand. Augustine stole a neighbor's pear as a teenager, and Augustine did not spare himself, and the starting point of his life's thinking was this incident, and his conclusion was not a phenomenal indecent act, but a profound examination of human sinfulness. It can be seen that time has given people rich meanings, and the meanings composed of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign history and reality are still being generated.

The original sin of human nature is shown in the mature time of things, and such a phenomenon can also be considered in our culture, such as "angry people have, laughing people don't", "can't see the good of others", "besiege a country with an economy taking off", etc. This book includes the Chinese's sayings that "as for August there is murder" and "southern Zhengji", all of which are coveted by neighbors, neighboring villages, and neighboring countries when crops ripen in summer and autumn, and the book includes the incident of Zheng Guo's army grabbing Zhou Tianzi's grain under the nose of the Son of Heaven. In fact, the relationship between man and time can indeed observe the truth of human temperament, and can also see the state of a person and a group. The true attitude of keeping integrity is: "A person has skills, if he has his own; The sage of man is good. ”

As a "holy time", Confucius deeply understood the importance of time to the country and society, and he said when answering the way of the state: "When you travel in summer, take advantage of the chariot of Yin and serve the crown of Zhou." "Summer time is the lunar calendar of the luni-solar calendar, and the importance of summer time lies in the fact that it sees the birth of all things and thinks that it is the beginning of the four hours. This means that the time of the solar term is not only correct, but it is also kind to the prescriptiveness of the human world, the human body, and the human life. Some dynasties do not take the summer time as the standard, but from November, or even October as the starting point of time, "time begins", in fact, not only disturbs the time of day and agricultural time, but also makes people unable to find the north, and loses the coordinates of life because of the loss of time. Confucius saw that the correct adjustment of the time and timing can make the world admire the sky, because each time has its own constitution. Each dimension of time has its "constitution" and its supreme prescriptiveness. In the era of globalization, Confucius's "time for summer" is to adopt the Gregorian calendar time, enjoy the products of various countries, retain Chinese elements, and embrace human feelings.

Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, knowledge about solar terms and the like used to be monopolized by a few people. The sorcerers, the royal family, the sun, the celestial heralds, the celestial eunuchs, the celestial diviners, the gentlemen of the various divinations, etc., are selfless in their transmissions, and whether they "make the world known by their faintness" is a question. Knowledge is moving down step by step, but civilized society has not yet realized the wealth of the people, the separation of power among the people, and the birth of wisdom for the people. Just as Heidegger explained in Being and Time, it is necessary to break away from subjective thinking and the concept of time and space of science and technology in order for man to truly become "temporal". For this reason, Hai foretold the alienation of modern man: "How romantic is the theory of relativity, and yet it is cruel in the sense that human existence is temporal, and time is changed by human feelings...... Since it is possible to change the timeline through feelings, there is nothing impossible to deceive yourself, deceive others, and deceive the world. ”

That's why I value this book so much. Mr. Cai Youping once told me that for their winemakers, although it is important to collect herbs to make wine, time is the most important parameter, and only when the time is up, can the wine return to the bowels. In this regard, solar terms can be called the wisdom of Chinese civilization, and it is the "existence and time" that the Chinese have proved for thousands of years. In the era when knowledge is transferred to everyone, returning to the solar terms or time itself is conducive to people's reflection on their own integrity or spirit, to their own growth, and to people's salvage more achievements in the long river of time or the darkness of time. One of the problems of the large-scale downward movement of knowledge is that everyone feels the pressure and temptation of knowledge, and people are lost in it, but returning to time or solar terms should be a reliable coordinate for drifting in the ocean of knowledge. Like the farmers of the past, feel the cycle of time and life; Like the poet, to appreciate the "rose of time" and to harvest "time is food". "Young man, your job is to level the land, not to be anxious. You do things in March and April, and you have your own answer in August and September. "I am in a deserted valley, unpolluted, listening to the teachings of a bird, gathering flowers and making nectar, and composing my poems. The rations of beauty, the sacrifices of the spirit, are like some free wildflowers, growing alone and withering. I waited for the sunrise in my heart, like an old man's first love......"

Heidegger once quoted Hölderlin's famous words: "Life is full of labor, but it is also poetically inhabited on this land." "In terms of the perception of time, traditional Chinese culture has indeed had a beautiful experience of the harmony between nature and man, nature and people's hearts. Go feel it, go to enlightenment, go to sing and cry: "If it is a spring breeze and spring birds, autumn moon and autumn cicadas, summer clouds and summer rain, winter moon and cold weather, the poets of Si Si Si Waiting." Jiahui sends poems to relatives, and detached poems to complain. As for Chu Chen's going to the border, the Han concubine left the palace...... Stuffed with clothes, widows and daughters burst into tears; Or the scholar has a solution to the court, and forgets to return; Women have moths in favor, and then look forward to the country. Vance is all kinds of touching the soul, how can Chen Shi show its righteousness? How can non-long songs be loved? ”

The wealth of knowledge and the superiority of intelligence are not commendable in the face of solar terms, because each of us has to face ourselves. Shakyamuni sighed: "Amazing! Amazing! All sentient beings have the wisdom and virtue of the Buddha, but they have not attained it because of delusional attachment. ”

This is the word of faith!

New Media Editor: Li Lingjun

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