Beginning of Winter: More Than a Change of Seasons

That's what happened when this winter started and everything changed. just like a wheel rotating to certain parts, just like the watch when the needle going to past certain point, something changed. Today's topic is the first solar term in the winter. It's called 立冬(lì dōng), or the start of winter. We are going through a whole cycle of year of 24 solar terms. The idea is ancient Chinese people live, have a living style, follow the pattern, follow the fashion of celestial change. The symbol, how to follow? That's 24 solar terms. Each season has six solar terms. So altogether, 24. That's another way in Chinese calendar to calculate the time of the year. Four seasons, 24 solar terms, 12 months, 365 days, something like that, right? Okay. It's a totally different thing, different way to calculate, to count the time. four beginnings called spring begins, 立春(lì chūn), 立夏(lì xià), summer begins, and then autumn begins, then winter begins. So we're heading into the winter now. So in ancient, when the timing moving to different season, every single new season coming up, there always very formal, very complicated ceremony or set of rituals to dedicate to, leading by the emperor, to show the respect to heaven and earth, to all the divine beings in the cosmos, and also show the respect or gratitude to all these divine beings and also ancestors. That's the must. It's been last for thousands of years until the end of the dynasty, dynasty called the Qing Dynasty, the last emperor's dynasty, This is end, this kind of thing is over. So three days before this 立冬(lì dōng), the starting of winter, the grand scribe is going to announce： In three days, 立冬(lì dōng) is coming. This grand scribe is called in Chinese, called 太史(tài shǐ), which is one of the top government officials directly under the emperor. 太史(tài shǐ). It's 大(dà) with one dot. It's bigger than 大(dà), bigger than big. I think we made a little joke. That is how Chinese people call the wives 太太(tài tai), because she's just a little bit bigger than the biggest one in the household, in the family. So Chinese people respect the wives very much. Okay. That's太史(tài shǐ) that's 太(tài). That's one of the highest government officials right under the emperor. His function, his duty is three layers. One layer, observe the celestial change, writing down whatever happened of the position, relationship of the position and relationship between the stars. When something changed, that means something is going to change on Earth. That's the ancient Chinese astronomy. The second function, they keep the historical record for what the emperor was saying, important kind of announcement or order from the emperor. And third one, they keep a historical record, what the emperors was doing, Throughout the history, in later stage, they even have a daily kind of historical record for the emperor. One function for that kind of record is to kind of a system kind of reminding emperor, whatever you're doing is going to be in the record. You better watch yourself. You better behave. Behave what? Abide by the law of the celestial law. That's three layers of function of 太史(tài shǐ). So because the 太史(tài shǐ) observe all the celestial changes, like this, in three days, 立冬(lì dōng), the beginning of winter is coming. Then it's very formal kind of announcement. Then all related government departments to prepare, and also the emperor is prepared too. So the second part, pronounced as 齋(zhāi), first tone. 齋(zhāi) means have some vegetarian food. That's from emperor. Whoever goes with the emperor to do the ceremony, to perform all the rites, the rituals in the ceremony to welcoming the winter, which means welcoming the divine beings of the winter, All are gonna be getting to a period of time, three days or seven days, usually it's seven days, or three days for this case, only eat vegetarian food, which means to clean out inside. Then right before this 立冬(lì dōng), this day, They have to take a thorough shower, clean themselves outside. Then they change to new, very formal suit, gowns. The whole ceremony is led by their emperor. So this ruler leads the whole ministers to go through all the formalities, very complicated formalities on this day, on this 立冬(lì dōng) day, to show respect, show the gratitude and asking for blessing from heaven and earth, especially for the higher beings guarding the winter. So and pray for the blessing for the next year, because a good winter is going to leading you a good spring. There's a saying if there's proper quantity of snowing is leading a very good, prosperous new spring and new year. Because it freezes all the bugs， all the worms, to death in the field. So for next year, when everything becoming warmer, everything start to grow, then they have enough fertilizer by nature, because that's a gift from the frozen, from the snow in the previous winter. So this picture shows you that how to do this. So the emperor in person led all the ministers, all high-ranking officials to go pray and show their gratitude to higher beings. it's five seasons, 五季(wǔ jì), five seasons, right? At the very ancient time, there are only ten months. Each two months is one season, but each month is more than 30 days. 春(chūn), spring, 夏(xià), summer, then there's 長夏(cháng xià), long summer, then there's autumn, 秋(qiū), then there's winter, 冬(dōng). That's five seasons. related to five colors, five directions. Let's get into the direction first. It's north. In terms of five colors, that's black. And in terms of the five elements, 五行(wǔ xíng), from this perspective, that's water linked to winter. And from a perspective of five divine animals which safeguard the five directions, east, south, west and north, and center. In the east, that's a 青龍(qīng lóng), dragon. 青(qīng) is a very interesting character in Chinese. It can mean blue, it can mean green, When we describe the grass of 青草(qīng cǎo), that's green, We use 青(qīng) to describe sky, 青天(qīng tiān), it's blue sky. Sky blue is between the really blue and the green. And when it's getting dark, any color dark enough is going to go black. Young people have a very beautiful black hair. 青絲(qīng sī） But here 青龍(qīng lóng), dragon, 青(qīng) dragon is kind of sky blue, that kind of dragon, or green. And safeguard the east. And the vermilion bird, vermilion bird, or 朱雀(zhū què), literally translated as red bird, the bird with a red feather, is phoenix kind of like, is red. All the feathers safeguarding south. And the color related to south, it's red. 朱(zhū) means red. Five elements, east is tree, 木(mù). The south is 火(huǒ), fire. And center part is 土(tǔ), and color is yellow. And center part, the divine animal is yellow dragon. So Chinese people kind of like or worshiping dragon. And Chinese people call themselves, they're the descendants of a dragon. It's different than the Western dragon. Okay. Western dragon is kind of very vicious animal in the hell. And Chinese dragon is a lovely, powerful, In general, okay, divine animals, not the same kind of connotation as that in Western culture. So in the west, color-wise, the related color is white, and the divine animal is white tiger. And five elements is metal. And northern, and north, the divine animal, originally it was one, it's turtle, it's black turtles. Then somehow become two. So turtles surrounded by a snake. There is a very interesting phenomenon in both east and west. In ancient time, snake contained both good and evil side. The divine animals who guard the north of the, eventually there were two divine animals, turtles and snake. They would actually be black, both, because the color for north is black, 黑(hēi). So that's how we have five directions: east, south, center, west and north. And then accordingly, five elements: tree, fire, earth, metal and water. And five colors: 青(qīng)、 赤(chì)、黃(huáng)、白(bái)、黑(hēi). Sky blue, red, yellow, white and black. And you have these five divine animals. So in winter, you have these divine animals, you have a black color, you have the quality, a property of water. That's what happened when this winter started and everything changed. just like a wheel rotating to certain parts, just like the watch when the needle going to past certain point, something changed. frost beneath your feet foretells you that the hard ice yet to come. Means when something small happens, it is just the tip of the iceberg. Something bigger is yet to come. Chinese culture always, human want to go with whatever changes the cosmos. When cosmos change, we want to change. no more iPhone, no more shorts, no more screen time. And read something, physical book, okay? Talk to your family,