This passage means:
The sky is blue-black, the earth is yellow, and the universe was formed in a state of ignorance and boundlessness. The moonlight is full, the sun is setting in the west, and the stars are gathering in the boundless space. Cold and heat change, come and go; harvest crops in autumn and store food in winter.
It comes from the "Thousand Character Essay" compiled by Zhou Xingsi, the minister of Sanqi in the Liang Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Excerpt from the original text
The sky and the earth are dark and yellow, the universe is vast, the sun and the moon are waxing and waning (zè), the stars and constellations are arranged, the cold comes and the summer comes, the autumn harvests and the winter hides. Cold comes and summer comes, autumn harvests and winter hides. When the remaining years pass, Lu will adjust Yang. The clouds turn into rain, and the dew condenses into frost. Gold comes from Lishui, and jade comes from Kungang. The sword is called Juque, and the pearl is called Luminous. The fruit is precious, Li Nai (nài), and the vegetable is heavy on mustard and ginger. The sea is salty and the river is light, and the scales are hidden and the feathers are flying. The dragon master, the fire emperor, the bird official and the human emperor. When writing was first made, it was to wear clothes. There were Yu Tao and Tang Dynasties who pushed forward the throne and gave way to the country. To punish the people and punish their crimes, Zhou issued Yin Tang. He sat down and asked, bowing his head to the ground.
Translation: The sky is blue-black, the earth is yellow, and the universe was formed in a state of ignorance and boundlessness. The moonlight is full, the sun is setting in the west, and the stars are gathering in the boundless space. Cold and heat change, come and go; harvest crops in autumn and store food in winter. The accumulated leap years are combined into one month and placed in the leap year; the ancients used Liulu and Liulu to regulate yin and yang. When the clouds rise and become cold, they form rain; when the dew at night becomes cold, they condense into frost. Gold is produced in the Jinsha River, and jade is produced in the Kunlun Mountains.
The sharpest sword is called "Juque", and the most precious pearl is called "Yeguang". The most precious fruits are plums and plums, and the most important vegetables are mustard greens and ginger. The sea water is salty, the river water is fresh, fish swim in the water, and birds fly in the air. The Dragon Master, the Fire Emperor, the Bird Official, and the Human Emperor were all emperor officials in ancient times. Cangjie (jié) created writing, and Lei (léi) made clothes. Tang Yao and Yu Shun were wise and selfless, and took the initiative to abdicate their thrones to meritorious officials and sages.
To appease the people and defeat the tyrants, it was King Wu of Zhou, Ji Fa, and King of Shang, Cheng Tang. A wise monarch sits in the court and asks ministers about the way to govern the country. With his clothes hanging down and his hands in hand, he can bring peace to the world without any effort and achieve outstanding achievements.
Extended information:
1. The 1,000 words of "The Thousand-Character Essay" were not allowed to be repeated, but when Zhou Xingsi compiled the article, he repeated the word "clean" (clean, clean). 絜 is a synonym). In addition, after mainland China implemented simplified characters and merged variant characters, the simplified Chinese version was left with more than 990 different Chinese characters. It actually took less than a thousand Chinese characters to write such a rhyming and catchy miniature Chinese encyclopedia. It is a children's enlightenment book with great influence in China.
2. "The sky and the earth are dark and yellow, the universe is vast, the sun and the moon are shining, and the stars are arrayed." With a detached gaze, look to the outer space, and then, with a grand momentum, look back at the earth, "Cold Summer comes and goes, autumn is harvested and winter is stored, leaps and bounds are added to the year, and the laws and regulations regulate the sun." These eight sentences and thirty-two characters describe the material world of the sun, moon, stars, the sky, the sky and the vastness, the four seasons of the year, and the growth patterns quite accurately. narrative. More than a thousand years ago, the Chinese people's understanding of nature was still quite limited. It was truly remarkable for the intellectuals at that time to have such scientific predictions.
3. The seemingly casual description of time series. For a farming society, the change of seasons and the busyness of farming are not only the laws of nature that cannot be changed, but also the entire life cycle of human beings, which is irreversible. natural process. There are four seasons in a year, and people are divided into young and old. There are also changes in spring, summer, autumn and winter during a person's lifetime. Among them, the sentence "cold comes and summer goes, autumn harvests and winter hides" is especially enough to make people think deeply.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Thousand-Character Essay