From End to Beginning: The Way of Culmination and Return in the Great Cold Solar Term
This article offers a deep reading of Great Cold (Dahan), the final of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms, drawing on pre-Qin Confucian and Daoist philosophy, etymological analysis, and astronomical and phenological traditions. It reveals the dialectic of extreme cold and returning spring, the cyclic principle that every ending harbors a new beginning, and illuminates the late-winter rites of the Grand Nuo exorcism and the clay ox ceremony—inviting the reader into the ancients' cosmic wisdom of 'tracing origins by returning to endings' and the eternal circle of ceaseless renewal.
Introduction: Looking Back from the Year's End
Between heaven and earth, all things have their season; and every "season" must have its end. When we speak of "Great Cold" (Dahan) today, we tend to regard it merely as the coldest days of the year--the ground frozen solid, dripping water turning to ice, people huddled in warm rooms, longing for spring to arrive sooner. Yet such an understanding truly fails to honor the millennia of patient observation the ancients devoted to studying heaven and earth. Great Cold is by no means a simple marker for "the coldest period." It is the final link in the grand cycle of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms, the term of the year's end, the subtle yet solemn pivot where the year's vital breath (qi) reaches its terminus and stands on the threshold of "ending to begin again."
In our essay on "Start of Summer" (Lixia), we stood at the midpoint of the year, contemplating the threshold where all things shift from "birth" to "growth." Now we stand at the year's very end--at the furthest reach of the great river of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms--and in looking back along its whole length, we discover a startling truth: this river has no true "end." After Great Cold comes Start of Spring (Lichun); the year's conclusion is the year's commencement. Endpoint and starting point quietly converge here.
Why must we re-examine Great Cold from the perspective of pre-Qin and high antiquity$1 Because that was the era in which the solar terms were born, when their meaning had not yet been buried under layers upon layers of later commentaries. In that era, the year's end was no trivial turning of a calendar page but an event of the utmost gravity: the old year's vital breath is here exhausted, sinking into stillness--where will the new year's vital breath arise$2 If yin-cold accumulates to the utmost, might it simply congeal and never turn back$3 The ancients faced these questions with genuine anxiety, yet also with profound faith. That anxiety and faith crystallized into the various rites and customs of the Great Cold season--the Grand Nuo exorcism, the sending forth of clay oxen, the sweeping of dust in preparation for the new year--each one not a relic of superstition but a solemn response to the cosmic law that "endings give rise to beginnings."
The Book of Documents (Shangshu), in its "Canon of Yao" (Yao Dian), states: "He thereupon commanded Xi and He, reverently to accord with August Heaven, to compute and delineate the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, and so respectfully to bestow the seasons upon the people." These four characters--"respectfully bestow the seasons" (jing shou min shi)--express the fundamental reason the solar terms were created. And as the year's "people's seasons" draw to a close, the ancients confronted a question more fundamental than at any other time: Will time stop$4 Will winter last forever$5 When the sun rises lower each day, when daylight shortens each day, when the cold deepens each day, on what grounds can one believe it will surely turn back$6
This question strikes at the deepest core of pre-Qin thought. In the ancients' view, time was not a one-way arrow from past to future, but an eternally revolving circle. The extreme of winter was not annihilation, but the seedbed of a new round of "birth." The Commentary on the Judgment (Tuan Zhuan) of the Gu hexagram in the Book of Changes (Zhouyi) declares: "When things end, they begin again--such is the course of Heaven" (zhong ze you shi, tian xing ye). These six characters are the master key to understanding Great Cold, and indeed the master key to the entire system of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms.
The Commentary on the Words of the Text (Wen Yan) of the Qian hexagram in the Zhouyi states: "The great person is one whose virtue accords with heaven and earth, whose brightness accords with the sun and moon, whose orderly conduct accords with the four seasons, and whose weighing of fortune and misfortune accords with the spirits and gods." To "accord with the four seasons in orderly conduct" means that one's actions, emotions, and even the states of one's heart should adjust in correspondence with the progression of the four seasons. And Great Cold is the critical juncture at which the "order of the four seasons" completes one full cycle and stands ready to begin anew. Cross over Great Cold and you reach Start of Spring; traverse cold's uttermost extreme and you arrive at spring's birth.
This article will proceed from the core ideas of pre-Qin Confucianism and Daoism, reaching back to still more ancient mythological and folk traditions, to offer as thorough a reading as possible of the Great Cold solar term. We aim to understand not only what Great Cold is, but why it is so; not only what the ancients did during Great Cold, but why they did it. Above all, as the final term in the Twenty-Four Solar Terms, Great Cold bears a mission that transcends itself--it must draw the full stop for the entire cycle, and that full stop is simultaneously the starting point of the next cycle. In our inquiry into Great Cold, we will ultimately touch upon the fundamental question that runs through all twenty-four terms: How does the Way of Heaven (Tiandao) sustain its ceaseless renewal of life$7