The Winter Solstice:
The “one” is born as the beginning of Yang, and the starting point of nine cycles of “nine days” for counting the cold days

The solar term that immediately follows Greater Snow is the Winter Solstice. Every year, when it comes to Winter Solstice, memories of my hometown will pop up again and again. The first rumination that pops up is the children’s rhyme named “the song of winter solstice” (冬節歌), which was sung with local Fuzhou (福州) dialect, with rising and falling cadence. Also, the lyric was not only easy to be understood and highly relevant to our daily life, but also bore the best wishes of harmony, being fruitful with offsprings and blessing for longevity. The second memory revolves around fragrances – I remember a foodstuff that is the Fuzhou counterpart of glutinous rice cake (Ciba, 糍粑), with a name that is pronounced as English alphabet “C” in Fuzhou dialect. The character is so special that it is usually not found in any Chinese fonts for word processing. This character is having the radical “Mi” (米, time) on the left and the part “Shi” (時, time) on the right. “Mi” (rice) here indicates the raw material while “Shi” (time) here has two meanings - it refers to “the food is good for the time. On the other hand, it is also a symbol of “good time has come and good fortune is arriving”. The recipe is as follows: First, mix rice and glutinous rice with a particular ratio, Then, carry on the process of immersion in water, grind into thick liquid, and press for removing excessive water. Next, roll the dough into balls of similar sizes. After presenting the “Ci” to ancestors’ alters, boil these balls and scoop the balls out of water. After rolling the balls to smear them with fried soybean flour, grinded peanut powders and grinded cane sugar, the fragrant “Ci” is now ready for your enjoyment in the Winter Solstice. In the Winter Solstice of the year of Xin-Chou (辛丑年, 2021), I wrote a seven-character a sentence poem titled Expressing my feelings (〈遣懷〉). The last two sentenced of this poem wrote, “my childhood memories of the festivals are filled up with tastes and fragrances, and the songs with local dialects drive away my homesickness” (少時佳節偏多味，一曲鄉音解客愁). When I was writing the poem, at the same time I hummed The Song for Winter Solstice (〈冬節歌〉) with local dialect and ruminates about the scenario and tastes of my hometown.

The repertoire of the Winter Solstice is as rich as everywhere in China. It is obvious that each place celebrates the festival with their own joyful practices. Now I would like to explain why the Winter Solstice rose to become one of the most important festivals in Chinese cultural history from perspective of culture related to solar terms. The origin of the twenty-four solar terms was the reminder of important schedules for agricultural products. The most important time points are “the eight festivals in the four seasons” (四時八節). The Winter Solstice is one of these important timepoints. It took a long time for the final settlement of ancient Chinese calendar which is based on the solar term systems. It is widely believed that the earliest among the eight festivals are the Summer Solstice (夏至) and the Winter Solstice (冬至), then here comes the Spring Equinox (春分) and the Autumn Equinox (秋分), followed by the Beginning of Spring (立春), the Beginning of Summer (立夏), the Beginning of Autumn (立秋), and the Beginning of Winter (立冬). The people further subdivide the time in between and forms the twenty-four solar terms. The meaning of “Zhi” (至) is not “arrival” (as the usual meaning of the character), but “the apex” (頂點, 極致, the apogee/ in the fullest extend). Actually, the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice are the time when the Sun appears to be arriving respectively Tropic of Capricorn (南迴歸線, which is the most southerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun is directly overhead) and Tropic of Cancer (北迴歸線), which is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun is directly overhead). Therefore, as Chinese are living in the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer Solstice is the time with the longest daytime and shortest nighttime. On the contrary, the Winter Solstice is the time with the longest nighttime and the shortest daytime. Therefore, the poem Yawning for Lady Xiang-Ling in the Winter Solstice night (〈冬至夜懷湘靈〉) written by Bai Juyi (白居易, 772-846) described his pain of longing for his beloved lady Xiang-Ling in a long lonely night that seems to be never-ending, “how can we stand this longest night, when both of us sleep alone” (何堪最長夜，俱作獨眠人)”. The poem is the origin of the other name of the Winter Solstice, “the festival of the longest night (長至節)”.

As the Winter Solstice is regarded as an “apex” of a season, ancient Chinese described the phenomena with corresponding theories and philosophies. Ancient Chinese believed that, what goes up must go down. In Chinese understanding, if the Sun appears to reach its most southerly latitude, the Sun will “turn Northward” after the Winter Solstice. These ideas emerged into concept “the one, the beginning of Yang” (一陽生). Yang (陽, the counterpart of Yin陰) here could be regarded as an meteorological description of the natural phenomenon that daytime would gradually increase after the Winter Solstice. Also, this implies the growth of “Yang” and decline of “Yin” in accord with ancient Chinese Yin-Yang theories. If the Qi of Yin (陰氣) reach its fullness, it will be the time when the Qi of Yang (陽氣) evolves. The decline of Yin and the rise of Yang synchronize like twins. In the poem A letter written in the Winter Solstice to my brothers living in the capital, with my thoughts on my friend Mr. Cui the Chief Officer of Capital Water and Sewage Department (〈冬至夜寄京師諸弟兼懷崔都水〉) written by the poet in mid-Tang Dynasty Wei Ying Wu (韋應物, 737-791), it wrote, “In the month with Earthly Branch of Zi, the first qi is evolving, at the same time the shade of the sun lies in the farthest south (子月生一氣，陽景極南端)”. Here “the month with Earthly Branch of Zi (子月)” refers to the eleventh month in lunar calendar, in which the Winter Solstice is found. “The first Qi is evolving” means the Qi of Yang (陽氣)is beginning to evolve at the day when the Sun appears to be at the farthest South in the Earth. In Chapter on Meteorology in Erh-ya (《爾雅‧釋天》), it was said that the eleventh month of the lunar calendar is also called “The Month of Gu (辜)”. The annotator of Erh-Ya Guo Pu (郭璞, 276-324) only made a remark that “the month of Gu” is the other name of the eleventh month but without description of its origins and meanings. Integrating previous research literature on the topic, Hao Yixing (郝懿行 1755-1823), the scholar of Qing dynasty, suggested that the Chinese character Gu 辜 here actually refers to another Chinese character Gu 故 of the same pronunciation, which means that when it comes to the eleventh month when there is the Winter Solstice, the Qi of Yang start to accumulate again, therefore, it is the critical moment when the bygone (Gu, 故) is past and the new is evolving. Hence, the Gen Gai (根荄, meaning the roots) begin to “strive for growing” (Chinese characters for “strive” here is Zi Zi ren 孳孳然 and growing is Sheng 生). Therefore, we can see that such understanding of the Winter Solstice is associated with the emphasis of ancient Chinese on the importance of this solar term. In the Twenty four poems inscribed in the sequel of Ink Paintings on farming and weaving (〈題耕織圖二十四首〉) written by poet Zhao Mengfu (趙孟頫, 1254-1322) in Yuan Dynasty, it was mentioned that “Yang is coming again in the Winter Solstice, grass and trees begin to grow again. People with virtuous characters highly regard this phenomenon, as it signifies the thriving of the right way (冬至陽來復，草木漸滋萌。君子重其然，吾道自此亨).” As mentioned in the poem, the elite class and the Junzi (君子, people with virtuous characters) highly regard the phenomenon that Qi of Yang as triggering the growth of grass and trees as they believed that the association of the right way of Junzi 君子 (people with virtuous characters) and the thriving of the Qi of Yang, which is related to the symbol of hardiness. Therefore, as an ancient adage quoted, “The heavenly virtue means to be strong and striving, Junzi should keep on striving for excellence as well.” (天行健，君子自強不息). The sample principle also applies to the cultural practices of China, so there is an adage “The Winter Solstice is equally important as the New Year (冬至大如年)”. In Southern Song Dynasty, Meng Yuanlao (孟元老, ?-?) wrote in his book Remembrance of the Eastern Capital (《東京夢華錄》) that people in Kaifeng (開封), the capital city of the Northern Song Dynasty, would try all means to celebrate the winter solstice no matter how poor the family was, as quoted in these sentences, “on that day people buy new clothes, prepare fests, and worship their ancestors… people greet each other and stroll around just like in the New Year’s Celebration (至此日更易新衣，備辦飲食，享祀先祖…慶祝往來，一如年節)”.

In the culture among elites and Junzis, plum blossoms became the symbol of the characters of Junzi due to the nature of blossoming in the extreme chilly weather. In the poems like “Fragrance of the Plum Blossoms came along in the Extremely Cold Winter” (梅花香自苦寒來)” and “Without surviving the extreme cold weather, the Delightful fragrance of plum blossoms would not be found (不經一番寒徹骨，哪得梅花撲鼻香)”, the plum blossoms gave Chinese a good impression. However, we should note that, apart from the special feature of plum blossoms that allows them to stand and blossoms in the extremely cold weathers, ancient Chinese were also aware of the foundation of the blossoming of plums, which was believed to be enabled with “the one, the beginning of qi of Yang (一陽之氣)”. Ancient Chinese poems often reflected such understandings, for example, the poem The day before the Winter Solstice (〈小至〉) written by Du Fu (杜甫, 712-770) wrote, “In the Winter Solstice, Yang reborn again, then comes the returning of the spring (冬至陽生春又來)”. Du Fu found that a sign of rebirth come from the mountain, “the mountain wants to break through the surrounding of cold air by thriving plum blossoms (山意沖寒欲放梅)”. The poem Written in the Winter Solstice (〈冬至夜作〉) written by Late Tang Dynasty poet Han Wo (844-923) also mentioned that in Winter Solstice, “Qi of Yang returns from the underneath”, therefore the poet speculated that “the branches heading south may have early opening of plum blossoms (料得南枝有早梅)”. Zhu Shuzhen (朱淑真, 1135-1180), a female poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, also wrote in her work The Winter Solstice (〈冬至〉) that the wind in that day was good, therefore, “the Yin will decline, and the Yang will arise, the elegant air is coming back” (陰伏陽升淑氣回), therefore the poet wrote, “The plum blossoms grasp the time when the weather is not in its coldest and thrive” (梅花先趁小寒開).

In the folk culture of ancient Chinese, the relationship between the Winter Solstice and Plum Blossoms could be represented by the widespread Nine cycle of nine-days of cold weather plum blossoms (九九寒梅圖). After the Summer Solstice, there is “Three Fu cycles of the hottest days” (三伏天). Similarly, after the Winter Solstice, the temperature of the ground is going to fall to its coldest despite the gradual increasing time of sunlight. Thus, the coldest period of the year arrives. This is traditionally called counting the circle of nine until the cold weather ends (數九寒天), and there were traditional practices called eliminating the cold weather (消寒). In Ming Dynasty, The Brief Chronicles of the Imperial Capital (《帝京景物略》) co-edited by Liu Dong (劉侗, 1593-1636) and Yu Yizheng (于奕正, 1597-1636) described the following scenario, “In the Winter Solstice, people draw a Plum Blossom with eighty-one white petals, then fill one petal with colour in each day. When all of the petals are coloured in a period of nine cycles of nine days, one will find that spring has already arrived for a long time. This figure is called the figure for eliminating the cold weather with counting the nine cycles of nine days (冬至日，畫素梅一枝，為瓣八十有一。日染一瓣，瓣盡而九九出，則春深矣，曰九九消寒圖)”. This is the practice of counting the nines (數九) starting from the Winter Solstice. Due to the temperature differences in different parts of China, people in some areas do not start counting in the Winter Solstice, but on the first day with earthly branch Ren (壬日, in Chinese it is called start counting nine in the first Ren day after the Winter Solstice (冬至逢壬數九). No matter how, counting nine cycles of nine (九九) means counting for eighty-one days. When all petals are filled with colour, people would call this exit from the nines (出九), which means that everywhere is lively in the spring.

Reference

Books

1. 孟元老撰，伊永文箋註：《東京夢華錄箋註》（北京：中華書局，2006年），卷十，頁882。

2. 郝懿行：《爾雅義疏》（上海：上海古籍出版社，1989年），頁190。

3. 彭定求等：《全唐詩》（北京：中華書局，1960年），頁1917、頁2537、頁4834、頁7789。

4. 汪灝等編：《御定廣群芳譜》，卷六《天時譜》，文淵閣《四庫全書》子部「譜錄類」。