May 21: Xiaoman

[artemisdart]

When I was in studying Chinese, I came across a whole bunch of arcane, obscure research. Being me, I photocopied or otherwise preserved notes on certain things that interested me.

One of the things that interests me: Calendars. I like them. The eternal conflict between the solar year and the lunar month, and then trying to work the stars in there, too! Intercalcary days! Intercalcary weeks! Oh, it's all just too interesting.

While up in the attic the other day, I unearthed some of this buried research. It turns out that in traditional Chinese culture, there are 24 segments to each year -- twice a month, or roughly every two weeks, one segment ends and the other begins. Not having the 7-day week, which is an ancient Hebrew invention, traditional China had the 9-day market cycle, and then also these 24 segments based on the sun's progression. Twelve of them are Principal Terms -- basically months -- and the ones in between those twelve are Sectional Terms.

It interested me to see that May 21 (approximately) will begin the fourth Principal Term (Zhongqi), when the sun's longitude is "60." This Principal Term will last 31.2 days, until the sun is at ecliptic longitude 90 -- the summer solstice, and also (incidentally) my birthday.

And I thought it might interest you, too. So I'm making a new tag for "calendars," and if I remember every two weeks, I'll update you on what Term we're in. Just for your reference.

May 21: Xiaoman : 小 滿 (literal meaning: Lesser Fullness [of grain, i.e. kernels plump up])

References:
http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html, a page all about leap years in various calendrical systems.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/focus/solar-term.htm includes the 2008 dates for all these terms

Comments

[ramonarjona.livejournal.com]

I hope this totally comes back when China colonizes us.

[catherinew.livejournal.com]

I just want civil servants to be selected by how well they can write an eight-legged essay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-legged_essay) with brush and ink and inkstone, in traditional Chinese characters, making appropriate references to ancient texts.

Is that so much to ask?

[happytune.livejournal.com]

Cool. As I understand it the calendar Term also dictated the musical mode that was to be adhered to for that Term?

[catherinew.livejournal.com]

I had not heard that, although musicology was never my area. A bit of research on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_musicology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_musicology)) reveals that there were 12 lü (律) -- basically similar to modes. So it wouldn't surprise me if someone at some point had assigned one 律 to each Principal Term. It's exactly the sort of thing that crazy systems people would do, before they had computers to mess around with. :-)

Solar terms in Japan

[(Anonymous)]

Well, there's still a few places where the solar terms are still used--in China itself they are marked on many calendars since the farmers still use them. And here in Japan, they are also known by many people, especially the older ones. One in particular is marked by everyone, Setsubun--Feb. 3rd, the start of spring (like our Groundhog Day). In Japan, some people dress up as ogres and the children throw soybeans or other legumes (usually peanuts) at them while shouting "onni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!" (ogres out, luck in). Just as weird as Groundhog Day really, and marked at the same time for the same reason.

Re: Solar terms in Japan

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, another thing--sorry sis, your "xiao" is wrong. I thought it looked weird to say that being filial was full, and I see that it should be "little full"--that makes a lot more sense! Fits in with the "little heat", "little cold", "little snow", etc.

Re: Solar terms in Japan

[catherinew.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was having a hard time finding a word pronounced "xiao" that meant some kind of grain. I see from this site (http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/focus/solar-term.htm) that this particular term, rather than being translated as "Grain Full," should be translated as "Lesser Fullness of Grain," and if we understand that the "of grain" is left out, then just "lesser fullness" would be 小滿.

Me speak Chinese real good!