A Clap of Spring Thunder: The Awakening of Life and the Way of Dormancy in the Jingzhe Solar Term
This article offers a deep reading of Jingzhe (Awakening of Insects) among the Twenty-Four Solar Terms, drawing on pre-Qin Confucian and Daoist philosophy, etymological origins, astronomy, and phenology. Through an examination of the historical renaming from 'Qizhe' to 'Jingzhe,' an analysis of how spring thunder rouses hibernating creatures, and the cosmic vision of the Zhen (Thunder) hexagram's 'the sovereign emerges from Zhen' in the Book of Changes, the essay reveals the critical threshold at which life transitions from dormancy to vigorous action, illuminating the ancient Way of bending and stretching to preserve one's being.
Chapter Thirteen: The Mythology of Thunder -- Fenglong, the Thunder God, and the Ancient Echoes of Goumang
I. Thunder as Deity: The Ancients' Awe and Imagination before Thunder
Thunder is Jingzhe's most central image. And in the hearts of the ancient peoples, thunder was far more than a natural phenomenon -- it was a god, an embodiment of heavenly majesty, an entity charged with mysterious power.
Why did the ancients deify thunder$23 This is entirely understandable. Imagine, in that remote age devoid of scientific knowledge, when people saw the sky suddenly darkened by dense clouds, lightning tearing the firmament, thunder crashing and echoing, the very earth trembling -- what a stunning, terrifying spectacle! This immense, incomprehensible force, capable of destroying trees and buildings and even taking human life, was naturally perceived by the ancients as something supernatural and sacred. And so thunder was deified -- it became the voice of Heaven, Heaven's wrath, the manifestation of Heaven's will.
This awe before thunder is already evident in the Yijing's "repeated thunder, the noble person is moved to fearful self-examination." On the plane of mythology, this awe evolved into splendid imaginings about "thunder deities." The ancients believed that behind that rumbling thunder, there was a deity (or deities) governing lightning and thunder. This chapter explores the ancient faces of these thunder gods and examines what echoes Jingzhe's thunder awakened in the mythological world.
II. Fenglong: The Thunder God in the Songs of Chu
In pre-Qin texts, the thunder god bears several names, one important one being "Fenglong."
The name "Fenglong" appears primarily in the Songs of Chu. Qu Yuan, in the Li Sao (Encountering Sorrow), writes: "I bade Fenglong ride upon the clouds, to seek where the Lady of the Luo might be found." Here "Fenglong" is annotated by Wang Yi as the "Cloud Master" (some say Thunder Master). In the magnificent, fantastical mythological world of the Songs of Chu, Fenglong is a deity capable of riding clouds, summoning wind and thunder -- a capable messenger for Qu Yuan's journeys through heaven and earth in pursuit of his ideals.
The name "Fenglong" itself is charged with divine resonance. "Feng" connotes abundance and grandeur; "long" connotes rumbling and magnificence. Together, "Fenglong" seems to imitate the rolling, rumbling, grand, and overwhelming sound of thunder. By giving the thunder god such a name, the ancients sought to capture thunder's qualities of grandeur, sonority, and soul-shaking power.
In the Songs of Chu, Fenglong stands alongside many other deities (such as Wangshu, Feilian, the Lady of the Luo, and others) in a brilliant mythological pantheon. This pantheon reflects the rich and romantic mythological imagination of the Chu region (the south). The thunder god Fenglong's ability to ride clouds and mediate between heaven and earth embodies the ancients' understanding of thunder's special power as a "connector of heaven and earth" -- thunder descends from the sky and shakes the earth; it is a medium linking Heaven and earth, the divine and the human. And Jingzhe's thunder is the first grand manifestation of this "connecting" power -- Heaven uses thunder as its emissary, transmitting to the sleeping earth the decree: "It is time to awaken."
III. The Image of the Thunder God: From the Classic of Mountains and Seas to Folk Imagination
Beyond Fenglong, the ancients held other imaginings of the thunder god. The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing) provides one particularly important image.
The Shanhaijing, in "Within the Eastern Seas," records: "In the Marsh of Thunder (Leize) there is a thunder god, with the body of a dragon and the head of a human, who beats his belly. It is west of Wu." In the Marsh of Thunder lives a thunder god with a dragon's body and a human head, who strikes ("beats") his belly (to produce thunder). This is an image of extraordinary primitive imagination: the thunder god has a dragon's body and a human head; the sound of thunder comes not from any instrument or tool but from the god beating his own belly -- his stomach is an immense drum, and each slap produces a heaven-shaking crash!
This "belly-beating thunder" image, in its simplicity and vividness, reflects the ancients' naive yet poetic explanation of what causes thunder. In their minds, that rumbling thunder sounded like a giant or deity beating a drum. In later ages, this imagination evolved into the more concrete image of the "Thunder Duke" (Lei Gong) -- wielding mallet and drum (or axe and chisel), who with each strike produces a thunderbolt.
The thunder god's "dragon body" is also noteworthy. The dragon, as discussed earlier in the context of "scaled creatures," symbolizes spring and the surging of yang qi. That the thunder god has a dragon's body links thunder to the dragon, to spring, and to the surging of yang qi. In spring, the dragon rises amid clouds and rain; in spring, thunder crashes and rouses all things -- dragon and thunder are different mythological expressions of the same force: "yang qi surging, shaking heaven and earth." At Jingzhe, when "the dragon raises its head" and thunder first sounds, dragon and thunder take the stage together, performing the overture to the year's revival of life.
IV. Goumang: The Spring God Who Awakens the Plants
Accompanying the thunder god is another deity of vital importance to Jingzhe -- Goumang. We already introduced him in Chapter Four's discussion of the Monthly Ordinances correspondences; here we expand further.
Goumang is the spirit of Wood and the spirit of Spring in ancient mythology, the assistant deity of mid-spring. The Shanhaijing, "Beyond the Eastern Seas," records: "In the east is Goumang, with the body of a bird and the face of a human, riding two dragons." Goumang has a bird's body and a human face, and rides two dragons -- an image similarly suffused with primordial divinity.
The name "Goumang" was explicated earlier: "gou" (curved) and "mang" (the tender tip of a newly sprouted plant). "Goumang" captures the image of new growth curving upward, its tender shoot pushing through the earth. If the thunder god (Fenglong, Lei Gong) governs the "startling" -- rousing all things with thunder -- then Goumang governs the "generating" -- propelling the sprouting and growth of plants. The thunder god is responsible for "waking them up"; Goumang is responsible for "making them grow." The two collaborate to accomplish Jingzhe's great work of "rousing and generating all things."
Goumang's image of "riding two dragons" and having "a bird's body" is also suggestive. "Riding two dragons" links Goumang to the dragon (symbol of spring and yang qi); "a bird's body" links him to birds (symbols of rising, upward movement). Both dragon and bird symbolize an ascending, rising, exuberant force -- precisely the essence of spring, of the virtue of Wood, and of Jingzhe's generative qi. Goumang, with this image charged with rising force, presides over spring's sprouting of vegetation -- the ancients' personification and deification of "generative force."
Thus we see a complete mythological tableau of Jingzhe: the thunder god (Fenglong, Lei Gong) rouses all things with thunderbolts; the spring god Goumang propels the plants to sprout and grow; the dragon rises amid clouds, bringing rain -- Heaven, earth, gods, and dragon together enact Jingzhe's grand revival of life. These myths are by no means mere "stories" fabricated by the ancients but their poetic, profound understanding of this sacred moment. In an age before the rise of science, myth was the way the ancients grasped the world and understood the Way of Heaven. And through these myths, we today can still touch the complex, deep feelings the ancients experienced before spring thunder and the revival of life -- a blending of awe, wonder, and gratitude.
V. Taihao and the Marsh of Thunder: The Imprint of Thunder upon the Spring Sovereign
The presiding sovereign of mid-spring is Taihao (Fuxi). Intriguingly, in ancient legend, the birth of this Spring Sovereign also bears a hidden connection to "thunder" -- adding yet another mythological depth to Jingzhe's thunder theme.
According to tradition, Fuxi's mother, Lady Huaxu, stepped into a giant footprint in the "Marsh of Thunder" (Leize) and thereby conceived, giving birth to Fuxi. This legend is recorded in multiple ancient texts. As we noted earlier, the Shanhaijing records that "in the Marsh of Thunder there is a thunder god, with the body of a dragon and the head of a human, who beats his belly" -- the Marsh of Thunder is precisely where the thunder god dwells. Lady Huaxu trod on the giant footprint in the Marsh of Thunder (said by some to be the thunder god's footprint) and bore Fuxi, thereby linking Fuxi's birth intimately to the thunder god and the Marsh of Thunder. In other words, this Spring Sovereign who presides over spring and over Jingzhe's mid-spring -- Taihao (Fuxi) -- can trace the source of his very life to that thunder-charged marsh.
This is no coincidence but a necessity of mythological logic. The Spring Sovereign Taihao presides over the spring in which all things germinate, and the core driving force of spring is the thunder that surges and shakes and rouses all things. To link the Spring Sovereign's birth to the Marsh of Thunder and the thunder god is to unify, on the plane of myth, "spring" and "thunder," "the sovereign of generation" and "the power of thunderbolts." Fuxi is both the founder of civilization who first drew the Eight Trigrams (the dawn of wisdom) and the Spring Sovereign born from the resonance of thunder (the source of life) -- within his person, the great power of creation, surging, and inaugurating that "thunder" symbolizes is concentrated.
Thus Jingzhe's mythological tableau becomes ever more complete and profound: the Spring Sovereign Taihao, born from the resonance of thunder, presides on high over spring's nurturing; the thunder god Fenglong and Lei Gong rouse all things with thunderbolts; the spring god Goumang propels the plants to sprout; and thunder, the driving force behind all, runs through everything, serving both as the life-source of the Spring Sovereign and as the awakening power of all things. In this mythological system, "thunder" is elevated to a position that is original and generative -- it not only rouses life but is itself one of life's sources. And Jingzhe is the annual grand appearance of this creative thunder. That the ancients surrounded Jingzhe's thunder with such rich and profound mythology speaks to how solemn and sacred, in their hearts, the significance of this spring thunder truly was.