Cardamom is thirteen or fourteen years old to fifteen or sixteen years old (Cardamom is a plant that blooms in early summer, but not yet in midsummer, which means that people are still underage, so it is called "cardamom youth"). In Du Fu's "Farewell" poem, "Flowers are more than thirteen, and cardamom is in early February". ?
Hair was tied when a man was fifteen (when he was fifteen, a man would dissolve the original corner and tie it into a bundle). There is a saying in "Wearing Li Ji" that "I want to go to college with my hair tied". When a woman was fifteen years old, when she reached the age of fifteen in ancient times, she put her hair up and clamped it with a hairpin, indicating that she had reached adulthood. There is a saying in the Book of Rites that "(a woman) died for five years in ten years". ?
The weak crown is a man of twenty years old (the ancient man was crowned at the age of twenty, indicating that he had reached adulthood, so he was called "weak crown" because he had not yet reached the prime of life). There is a saying in the Peony Pavilion that "suddenly there is a life, but the year is pale and handsome".
Extended data:
In the process of reading ancient prose, we often come across some words expressing age appellation, such as "weak crown" and "fatigue". Students are often confused about this. In fact, there are many words like this, which we must know in the process of reading ancient Chinese. The ancient age appellation came from different sources, most of them were named according to the physiological characteristics of different ages, but some of them followed the words of their predecessors and became fixed names.
Of all age appellation, the title "ninety" is the most interesting. Or "mackerel back", mackerel is a kind of fish, and the stripes on its back are like the wrinkled skin of an old man. In old age, senile spots appear on the skin, such as the skin of frozen pears, so it is also called "frozen pears".
There are also names based on physiological characteristics, for example, people are called "babies" at birth because they need to be held on their chests to feed them. Babies can pass fake, fake breasts. A baby is a child held on his chest. Seven-year-old is not only called "mourning", but also called "losing teeth", so it is called because it is the period of changing teeth. Fifteen years old is called "child" and "when there is no vegetation on the mountain, it is called" child ". Ancient 16 years old adult, 15 years old men were not crowned, women were not crowned. Metaphor is used here.
In addition, we often say "the year of establishment", "the year of no doubt" and "the year of know life" come from the records in The Analects of Confucius: "Confucius said: five out of ten are determined to learn, stand at thirty, stay at forty without doubt, know the destiny at fifty, obey at sixty and obey at seventy."
The Book of Rites, compiled by Dai Sheng, a Han Chinese, said: "Life is ten years old, twenty weak, thirty strong, forty strong, fifty ai, sixty, eighty and ninety years old." Among them, there is also the saying that you are guilty for years. However, later generations often regard "infant learning" and "weak crown" as age appellation, which is probably the reason why the vocabulary of later generations has developed from monosyllabic to disyllabic.
In China, there is also a tradition of keeping track of cadres and party branches. 60 years is a round, so there is a saying that 60 years old is the "year of the flower". Du Fu said in a poem: "Wine debts are common, and life is 70 years old." As a result, seventy has another nickname of "seventy years old".
Of course, there were more than these appellations in ancient times, and many of them were scattered in various ancient books, but they were not handed down because they were used less. These mentioned above have been used by later generations because of their high frequency of use and strong vitality. Some of them have also entered our daily communication, such as Standing at Thirty. For example, from the words "baby" and "child", we can't see the difference between history and today.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia: age appellation