“Thousands of miles of ice are covered with snow, and the roads are blocked by thousands of harbors. Yesterday, I cut peaches and pruned a few trees, and suddenly they bloomed like plum blossoms overnight.” The poet Zuo Heshui described the scenery of the Xiaohan season in his poem “Little Cold” Cold scene. A farmer's proverb says: "The minor cold is better than the major cold. It is common and not uncommon." That is to say, the minor cold is colder than the major cold. Why is this?
The oldest "Jiujiu Song" recorded in "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" says: "Thirty-nine and twenty-seven, the fence is blowing? Zhen." Zhen is an ancient wind instrument, shaped like a trumpet. , use reed as the mouth and bamboo as the tube. It means that the biting cold wind blows on the fence head, making a whistling sound like blowing a fence. The "Nine-Nine Song" circulated in the northern region says "Walking on the ice on the third and fourth nines", that is, the "three-nine" freezes the earth and people walk on the ice. As the proverb goes, "It's cold in three-nine" and "A dog will freeze to death in three-nine or four-nine." All this shows that "March 9" is the coldest period of time. The "March Nine" is mostly from January 9th to January 17th (this year), while the Xiaohan season is all in the "March Nine" and coincides with the beginning of the "Fourth Nine". The minor cold lasts for 15 days, 12 of which are in the "three nines and four nines", so the temperature is the lowest during the minor cold. Therefore, there is a saying that "it's three or four or nine when there is a slight cold, and the sky is cold and the ground is freezing, and the north wind roars".
Meteorologically speaking, during the Xiaohan solar term, the East Asian Great Trough develops the most powerfully and stably, the Mongolian cold high pressure and the Aleutian low pressure also become the most powerful and stable, and the scale of the westerly trough reaches the largest, and cooperates with the most powerful Strong westerly wind intensity. The cold air cooling process is frequent during the Xiaohan solar term. Evidence can also be obtained from meteorological proverbs from various places, such as "a small cold and a big cold freeze together into a ball", "a small cold and a big cold freeze together," etc. Liu Yong, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said in his poem "Looking at Plum Blossoms": "In the Lesser Cold season, the clouds are miserable and the wind is strong."
In long-term practice, people have discovered the impact of the Lesser Cold weather on the future climate. It is influential and sums up many meteorological proverbs. According to the proverbs used to predict the cold and warm weather of the Great Cold, such as "the Lesser Cold is not cold and the Great Cold" and "the weather in the Lesser Cold is hot, but the Great Cold must not be cold", which means that if the Lesser Cold is not cold, the Great Cold must be cold; predicting temperature changes after the Spring Festival, such as "the Lesser Cold is not cold but the Great Cold" It is thoroughly cold, and the weather will be warm in the coming spring." "Cold, Qingming quagmire"; predicting the corresponding relationship between mild heat and severe heat. For example, "There will be no snow in the minor cold and severe cold, and the fields will crack during minor and major summers." "There will be no rain in the minor cold, and there will be drought in the minor heat."
Why is Xiaohan still called "Small Han" because it is colder than Dahan? The first is in line with the ancient philosophical concept of "step by step". The ancients believed: "Cold air accumulates for a long time and becomes cold. If it is small, it will not reach the extreme." In the eyes of the ancients, cold is also a gradual accumulation process of development. It is gradual. There will be a small cold first and then a big cold. Those who have not reached the coldest The period is designated as Xiaohan. "Collection of the Seventy-Two Hours of the Moon Order" records: "Small Cold is the December festival. The cold is still small at the beginning of the month, so it is said. It is big at half a month." The second is based on the ancient philosophical principle that "the extremes of things must reverse", the alternation of cold and heat " "The way of heaven" is that after the cold reaches the extreme, it will inevitably warm up. If there is a major cold first and then a minor cold, you will literally not find the feeling of "warmth" after the coldest period. After the Great Cold comes the beginning of spring. Spring returns to the earth and the temperature begins to rise. This is in line with the traditional thinking habits of the ancients, so the Great Cold should be placed after the Lesser Cold. The third one corresponds to the mild heat and severe heat in summer. The minor cold in winter corresponds to the minor heat in summer, so it is called "little cold". The Great Cold, which is located after the Xiaohan solar term, lasts about a week in the "Four Nines", which is also a relatively cold season. There is a saying in the ancient "Jiujiu Song" that "sleeping at Four Nine Nights is like sleeping in the open", and the Great Cold coincides with the Great Heat. That’s why it’s called the “Great Cold.”
Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Zhen's "Ode to the Twenty-Four Qi Poems on the Xiaohan December Festival": "The Xiaohan is connected to the big Lu, and magpies are happy to build new nests. They scavenge for food in the meanders of the river, and wrap their purple heads around the treetops. Frost eagles Near the northern end, the pheasants gather in the grass. No wonder the spring and winter meet in the first month. "Huang Zhong Da Lu" in the twelve ancient Chinese laws corresponds to November and December respectively, so it is called "Huang Zhong Da Lu". Xiao Han and Da Lu." The five sentences in the middle say that Xiaohan was divided into three periods in ancient times: "The first period is when the wild geese start their nests, the second period is when the magpies begin to nest, and the third period when the pheasants begin to nest." "Yue Ling Seventy-Two Hours Collection" says: "Yanbei Township: Township, meaning guide. During the two suns, the geese will escape the heat and return. Now they fly north of the township, and they will all return after the beginning of spring. The birds Birds get Qi first. Magpies start their nests: magpies, magpies; the door of the nest faces Tai Sui, the beginning of the winter solstice, and the last two Yangs have obtained the solar terms of the coming year, so the magpie can build a nest and know where to go. "Pheasant": Pheasant, a civilized bird, is also a yang bird; ?, the male and female sing together, feeling the yang and then making a sound. "It means that the yang energy is stirring, the geese have begun to move north, the magpies have begun to build nests, and the pheasants have begun to sing. . The last two sentences of the poem say that although it is the harsh winter, the first month of spring is not far away.
As the British romantic poet Shelley said in "Ode to the West Wind": "Winter is here, can spring be far behind?"