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 Fourteen: Agriculture and Human Affairs--The End of the Nine Nines and Preparations for Spring Plowing
I. "Counting the Nine Cold Days": Great Cold Falls in the "Fourth Nine" and "Fifth Nine"
Among China's folk, there exists a method of singular wisdom for counting the bitter cold and looking forward to spring's warmth--"counting the nines" (shu jiu). Beginning from the Winter Solstice, every nine days constitutes one "nine," proceeding through the "first nine," "second nine," and so on through the "ninth nine"--eighty-one days in all. After the "ninth nine" comes the "sunny days of the ninth nine," with spring blossoms and warm air.
Great Cold falls around the "fourth nine" and "fifth nine"--the coldest phase of "the nine cold days." The folk "Nine-Nine Song," though varying by region, generally goes: "First nine and second nine, can't put out your hands; third nine and fourth nine, walk on ice; fifth nine and sixth nine, watch willows along the river; seventh nine, the river opens; eighth nine, the geese return; ninth nine plus one nine, plowing oxen are everywhere."
Observe the images in this song directly related to Great Cold. "Third nine and fourth nine, walk on ice"--the third and fourth nines (around Great Cold) are when ice is hardest, corresponding exactly to Great Cold's "ice on lakes and marshes freezes to the core" (rivers frozen hard enough to walk on). This is cold at its zenith. Yet immediately following--"fifth nine and sixth nine, watch willows along the river"--by the fifth and sixth nines, riverside willows are turning green and sending out buds! From the "fourth nine's" "walking on ice" (Great Cold, ice frozen to the core) to the "fifth nine's" "watching willows along the river" (first willow buds), this is the turning point from "extreme cold" to "returning spring"!
The Nine-Nine Song, in the most homespun, most vivid folk language, sings forth the "extreme cold, returning spring" principle we have repeatedly expounded. And its closing line--"ninth nine plus one nine, plowing oxen are everywhere"--points the end of the counting directly toward "spring plowing" (oxen plowing everywhere), echoing from afar the final month's Monthly Ordinance of "sending forth clay oxen" (heralding spring plowing with clay oxen).
II. The End of Winter Storage: Agricultural Rest and Accumulation
From the perspective of actual farming, Great Cold falls in the waning days of "winter storage." The year's agricultural work is essentially complete--autumn harvest and winter storage done, grain in the granary, fields at rest. During Great Cold, the farmer's main task is not field labor but rest, accumulation, and preparation for the coming year's spring plowing.
This "end of winter storage" rest is by no means idle loafing but a deeply meaningful "storing strength" in accord with heaven's timing. The Most High's "attain the utmost emptiness, hold fast to perfect stillness" and "returning to root, returning to destiny" find their parallel: Great Cold's agricultural lull is the time for people to follow the Way of Heaven's "winter storage," allowing body and mind to "return to root and return to destiny," accumulating strength for the coming year's labor.
III. Preparing for Spring Plowing: Birth Hidden Within Storage
Great Cold's agricultural work, though centered on "storage" (rest), already contains the seed of "release" (preparing for spring plowing). This is yet another vivid manifestation of Great Cold's "birth within storage" and "beginning within ending."
During Great Cold's agricultural lull, diligent farmers are by no means entirely idle, but engage in preparations for the coming spring plowing: repairing farm tools, composting, maintaining irrigation works, planning the coming year's planting... These "preparatory plowing" activities are the preparations made within "winter storage" for "spring release" (spring plowing). Great Cold's agriculture, therefore, is not the "period" at the end of the year's farming, but the "transition" connecting the old year (autumn harvest, winter storage) and the new year (spring plowing, summer cultivation)--even as it "stores" (rests), it is already gathering momentum for "release" (spring plowing).
IV. Human Affairs at Year's End: The "Returning to Destiny" of the Labor Cycle
From the broader perspective of "human affairs," the year's end where Great Cold stands is the "returning to destiny" moment of a year's labor cycle--the juncture for review, summation, rest, and renewed departure.
The cycle of human affairs, like the Way of Heaven's cycle and the cycle of the four seasons, is completely isomorphic. The Way of Heaven at Great Cold declares "sun exhausted, moon exhausted, stars returned, count completed" and then "the year begins anew"; human affairs similarly review and summarize at year's end, rest and return to destiny, and then set out again. Great Cold, as the pivot of the Way of Heaven's "endings and beginnings," is simultaneously the pivot of human affairs' "endings and beginnings."