To put it simply, phenology refers to the germination, flowering, fruiting, withering of plants and the migration and hibernation of certain animals, reflecting changes in climate and seasons. From this perspective, ancient Chinese poetry contains extremely rich phenological knowledge.
For example, "Three or two branches of peach blossoms outside the bamboo, ducks are prophets of the warmth of the spring river." (Su Shi wrote Huichong's "Evening Scene on the Spring River") In the early spring weather, ducks are the first to sense the warmth of the spring river and play in the water.
"In the cold weather, water birds depend on each other, and hundreds of them form a group to play in the sunset. No pedestrians can get up after passing by, and suddenly they hear the sound of ice and fly together." (Qin Guan's "Returning from Guangling") In late winter, The water birds depend on each other, and the sound of ice makes the birds fly away in fright. Ducks and birds are both messengers of spring.
“It rains every house during the yellow plum season, and there are frogs everywhere in the grassy pond.” (Zhao Shixiu’s "Water Threshold Reminds the Heart") The three objects appearing in the poem show the seasonal characteristics of the late spring and early summer when the plums are yellow and ripe.
Huang Chao's "Inscription on Chrysanthemums" said: "The rustling west wind fills the courtyard with plants, and the pistils are cold and fragrant, and butterflies are hard to come." The chrysanthemums withered and the butterflies disappeared. Although there is no word "Autumn", the coolness of autumn is felt But it came to my face.
As for Li Bai's "Song under the Sai", it leads readers to another world: "In May, there is snow in the Tianshan Mountains. There are no flowers, only cold. I hear the broken willows in the flute, but I have never seen the spring scenery." May is midsummer. , flowers have already withered in the mainland, but the Tianshan Mountains (Qilian Mountains) located in the northwest frontier are still covered with snow, without willows, flowers and grass, indicating that in the Yellow River Basin with an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, there is neither summer nor spring and autumn. Features. From this, it is not difficult to see the huge difference in climate between the mainland and outside the Great Wall.
In ancient poems about phenology, we often see the agricultural and military activities of our predecessors. For example, Fan Chengda's "Pastoral Miscellany in Four Seasons": "Butterflies enter the cauliflower in pairs, and no guests come to Tian's house as the day grows longer." These two sentences describe a poem about the late spring countryside in the south of the Yangtze River, and use the description of butterflies entering the cauliflower to set off the busy work of farmers and women. Let's look at Wen Tong's "Early Sunny Arrival at Baoen Mountain Temple": "The smoke is clearing, two gulls are falling on the distant water, and the sun is shining high in the forest, and a pheasant is flying. It's late before the barley is harvested, and the little silkworms are lying alone, chopping mulberries." The first couplet depicts a distant scene. There are vivid pictures of high mountains and forests and wild birds flying; the second couplet describes the busy scenes of farmers and women harvesting wheat, preparing vegetables, picking mulberries, and feeding silkworms at the turn of spring and summer, which is cordial and touching. And Lu Lun's "The wild geese are flying high in the dark moon, and the geese are fleeing at night. They want to drive away the light cavalry, but the heavy snow is full of bows and swords" (Part 3 of "Song under the Sai") is about marching and fighting: the enemy flees at night, and the geese fly away in fright. , which aroused the vigilance of our general, and led the soldiers to chase the enemy cavalry, which fully demonstrated the heroic spirit of the Chinese people.