Chapter Eleven: Agriculture and Human Affairs — The Wisdom of Preparing for Plowing during the Counting of the Nines

I. "Counting the Nines": Folk Timekeeping in Deep Winter

During the midwinter of Lesser Cold, folk tradition maintains an extraordinarily vivid method of timekeeping — "counting the nines" (shu jiu).

What is "counting the nines"$14 Starting from the day of the winter solstice, every nine days constitutes one "nine," sequentially called "First Nine," "Second Nine," "Third Nine," and so on through "Ninth Nine" — eighty-one days in total. When the count reaches the Ninth Nine, "the nines are done and peach blossoms open" — the bitter cold has passed and spring warmth has arrived with the blossoming flowers.

Why "count the nines"$15 For the ancients enduring winter, what the long and severe cold most needed was a "light at the end of the tunnel" — a sense of anticipation, a way to measure the approach of "cold's end, spring's arrival." "Counting the nines" is precisely such a folk timekeeping method, full of wisdom and warmth. It divides the seemingly interminable cold into nine discrete "nines" that can be counted off one by one, allowing people to see clearly, with each count, that winter is passing day by day and spring is drawing nearer step by step.

Lesser Cold falls right around the "Third Nine" — the coldest of them all. The proverb "the coldest days fall in the Third Nine" confirms that the Lesser Cold solar term (roughly corresponding to the Third Nine) is the coldest time of year. Yet note the deep meaning of "counting the nines" — even at the coldest "Third Nine" (Lesser Cold), people are still counting, still hoping, still knowing with certainty that once this coldest moment passes, the "Fourth Nine" and "Fifth Nine" follow, each step leading toward warmth and spring.

A widely known folk song, the "Nines Song," vividly depicts the progression from First Nine to Ninth Nine: "In the First and Second Nines, hands stay in pockets; in the Third and Fourth Nines, one walks on ice; in the Fifth and Sixth Nines, one sees willows along the river; in the Seventh Nine, the river opens; in the Eighth Nine, geese arrive; in the Ninth Nine plus one more, plowing oxen are everywhere." This song, in the most colloquial language, traces the complete process from deepest winter to the arrival of spring.

II. The "Leisure" of the Off-Season: The Way of Heaven and Humanity behind Rest

The midwinter of Lesser Cold and Greater Cold is the year's typical agricultural off-season. The fields have long been harvested, the ground is frozen, and no farming is possible — farmers enjoy a rare respite.

Yet this "leisure" of the off-season is by no means idle indolence; it embodies a profound Way of Heaven and humanity. Why is winter the off-season$16 The most direct reason is that the season dictates it. But at a deeper level, this off-season is the necessary requirement of conforming to Heaven and Earth's Way of "closing and storing." The Monthly Ordinances repeatedly emphasize "closing and storing" during winter, and caution against "mobilizing the masses" or undertaking major construction. Farmers' winter rest accords perfectly with this — it is not passive laziness but active, seasonally appropriate "nourishing through storage."

III. "Repair the Plowshares, Ready the Field Implements": The Off-Season Does Not Forget Preparation

Yet as we revealed in "magpies begin nesting," Lesser Cold's "off-season" is by no means utter inactivity. On the contrary, it is precisely during this "idle" time that the ancients were already making meticulous preparations for the "busy" season to come.

The Monthly Ordinances for the final month of winter explicitly calls for farmers to plan paired plowing for the coming year, repair the plowshares, and ready all field implements.

Why begin repairing tools and planning spring plowing during the coldest, most idle time of Lesser Cold and Greater Cold$17 Because this is precisely the wisdom of "what is planned in advance succeeds; what is not planned in advance fails" (Liji, "Zhongyong"). During spring plowing, the solar terms press urgently and farm work is hectic — there is absolutely no time for leisurely tool repair and agricultural planning. "Delay the land one season, and the land delays you one year." Therefore, the wise farmer must, during the winter leisure, calmly and thoroughly prepare everything needed for spring plowing.

This "off-season preparation" wisdom is the most concrete manifestation, in agriculture, of Lesser Cold's spirit of "nurturing spring within cold" and "gathering strength within rest."

IV. Human Affairs at Year's End: Concluding, Gathering, and Looking Ahead

The La Month of Lesser Cold and Greater Cold is, in terms of human affairs, a special time for concluding the year, reuniting the family, and looking ahead to spring.

Concluding — at year's end, the ancients would carry out a comprehensive settling of the year: tallying the harvest, organizing supplies, settling debts, tidying the courtyard — everything brought to proper closure before the new year.

Gathering — the La Month is above all a time for family reunion. Those who have been traveling or working away from home hasten back to gather with their families and share the new year. This "year-end reunion" shares a spiritual thread with the La sacrifice's "pursuing the distant past" (remembering ancestors) and with Laba's "gathering all things" (assembling a hundred grains) — all expressions of "coming together": at year's end, bringing the scattered family, the year's harvest, and the memory of ancestors all together to share this solemn moment of farewell to the old and welcome to the new. In the coldest midwinter, the family gathered around the hearth, full of warmth and joy — this warmth of "reunion" is the finest defense against the cold.

Looking ahead — though the year's end is an "ending," "where there is an end there is a beginning," and it is simultaneously the eve of the new year's "beginning." So at year's end, alongside concluding and gathering, the ancients brim with anticipation for the year to come. This sentiment of "looking ahead to spring" perfectly corresponds to Lesser Cold's celestial secret of "underground yang energy gradually ascending, spring approaching."