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.
Chapter Thirteen: Year-End Folk Customs--Sweeping Dust, Preparing for New Year, and Bidding Farewell to the Old
I. The Twelfth Month at Year's End: The Season of New Year's Preparations
The twelfth lunar month in which Great Cold falls is popularly known as the "La month." It is the year's final month, the season for "preparing for the new year"--making ready to celebrate the coming of a new year. Great Cold, as the most important solar term within the La month, is also the period when customs of "bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new" are at their most concentrated.
The character "la" itself is deeply significant. La originally refers to a year-end sacrifice--the "La sacrifice." The Shuowen Jiezi states: "La--on the third xu day after the Winter Solstice, the La sacrifice is offered to all the hundred spirits." The ancients held a grand sacrifice at year's end (after the Winter Solstice), making offerings to all the hundred spirits and ancestors in gratitude for the year's protection and in thanks for heaven and earth's nurture--this was the "La sacrifice." And the month in which the La sacrifice was held became known as the "La month."
The Record of Rites, "Jiao Tesheng" chapter, records an extremely ancient sacrifice related to year's end--the "Zha sacrifice": "The Son of Heaven holds the great Zha with eight offerings. Yi Qi first instituted the Zha. 'Zha' means 'to search'--in the twelfth month of the year, gathering all things and searching to give them offerings." The Son of Heaven held the "Zha sacrifice" at year's end, making offerings to eight categories of deities associated with agriculture. "Zha" means "search" (suo, to seek out and gather)--in the twelfth month (year's end), all the spirits related to the year's endeavors were gathered together and given sacrificial offerings.
The spirit of this "Zha sacrifice" is deeply moving. Commentator Zheng Xuan explains that the Zha sacrifice means "in the twelfth month, the correct reckoning of Zhou, there is no spirit of all things that is not sacrificed to." At year's end, the ancients gathered together every spirit that had bestowed blessings upon people throughout the year--those overseeing agriculture, fields, fowl and beasts, ditches and waterways--and offered each one sacrificial thanks. What a profoundly grateful, what a deeply "repaying one's roots and returning to origins" sensibility! As the year draws to its close, the ancients forgot none of the year's blessings, but at year's end solemnly, without omission ("gathering all things and searching to give them offerings"), expressed gratitude to all who had bestowed kindness.
II. Sweeping Dust: Cleansing Body and Mind, Bidding Farewell to Old and Welcoming New
One of the most widespread and important year-end customs is "sweeping dust" (sao chen)--a thorough cleaning of the home at year's end (the La month, especially around Great Cold), removing the year's accumulated grime to welcome the new year in spotless freshness.
Why sweep dust at year's end$3 The surface meaning is hygiene, but the deeper meaning is the spiritual symbol of "bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new." "Dust" (chen) symbolizes the various impurities, ill fortune, and stale energies accumulated throughout the old year; "sweeping dust" means sweeping out all the old year's dimness, filth, and adversity, so as to greet the new year with a clean, fresh, renewed environment. The folk saying that "chen" (dust) and "chen" (the old/stale) are homophones--so "sweeping dust" is "sweeping away the old"--reveals the core significance of removing the stale and establishing the new.
III. Preparations for the New Year: Accumulating Abundance at Year's End
Around Great Cold, folk customs also include various "preparations for the new year"--purchasing new year goods, curing and drying meats, readying food and utensils for the festival season. These customs, seemingly mundane domestic preparations, carry deep cultural significance.
"Cured meats" (la wei)--meat cured and air-dried at year's end (cured pork, sausage, fish, etc.)--are the quintessential food of year-end preparations. Why cure meats at year's end$4 Practically, the deep cold of winter (Great Cold) is ideal for curing and drying (low temperature and dry air prevent spoilage), and these preparations stock food for the long winter and festival season. Culturally, the "la" in "la wei" (cured meats) shares its root with "la yue" (La month) and "la ji" (La sacrifice)--cured meats are the signature food of the La month, the symbol of year-end abundance. At the year's end, every household curing meats and stocking new year goods is accumulating abundance and festive joy for the coming spring festival.
This "year-end abundance through preparation" resonates deeply with Great Cold's nature of "storage." Great Cold is "storage" at its extreme--heaven and earth store vitality underground, and people store abundance (new year goods, cured meats) in their homes. This "storage" is not hoarding but serves "release"--for the enjoyment, sharing, and celebration of the new year festival. Year-end "storage" (the accumulation of preparations) is for new spring's "release" (festival rejoicing). This perfectly mirrors the Way of Heaven's rhythm of "winter storage, spring release."
IV. Bidding Farewell to the Old, Welcoming the New: The Human Celebration at the Circle's Seam
All year-end customs around Great Cold--the La sacrifice, the Zha sacrifice, sweeping dust, preparing for the new year, purchasing festival goods--share one overarching theme: "bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new" (ci jiu ying xin). And "bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new" is humanity's most magnificent, most heartfelt response to Great Cold's "when things end, they begin again" and "extreme cold, returning spring."
Consider how perfectly "bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new" aligns with Great Cold's philosophy. "Bidding farewell to the old"--respectfully sending off and parting from the old year--corresponds to Great Cold's identity as "year's end," the "last" of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms. "Welcoming the new"--greeting and inaugurating the new year--corresponds to Great Cold's proximity to Start of Spring, its nature of ending-giving-rise-to-beginning, extreme-cold-returning-spring. The pairing of "bidding farewell" and "welcoming" mirrors the pairing of "ending" and "beginning"--precisely capturing Great Cold's dual nature of "being both end and beginning," "both farewell and welcome."
The reason the Chinese so greatly value "celebrating the new year"--this grand festival occurring around Great Cold, spanning the old year's end and the new year's beginning--is that it stands at the most sacred seam of the Way of Heaven's cycle of "when things end, they begin again." The new year celebration is humanity's grandest festival honoring the Way of Heaven's "circulating without peril" and "ending to begin again"; it is humanity personally participating in and celebrating this cosmic event of "bidding farewell to the old, welcoming the new" and "extreme cold, returning spring."