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 Seventeen: The Way of Musical Pitches--Great Cold Paired with Dalv
I. Dalv: Assisting Huangzhong and Propagating Yang-Qi
In Chapter Two we mentioned that the twelfth month (Chou month) in which Great Cold falls is paired with the pitch "Dalv." This chapter explores this pitch-correlation in depth.
The ancient Chinese paired the "twelve pitchpipes" with the "twelve months," forming the "pitch-calendar" (lv li) system. The twelve pitches divide into "six lv" (yang pitches: Huangzhong, Taicu, Guxian, Ruibin, Yize, Wuyi) and "six lv" (yin pitches, also called "six tong": Dalv, Jiazhong, Zhonglv, Linzhong, Nanlv, Yingzhong). Their monthly pairings: Huangzhong with the eleventh month (Zi month, Winter Solstice), Dalv with the twelfth month (Chou month, Great Cold), Taicu with the first month (Yin month, Start of Spring), and so on through twelve pitches cycling through twelve months.
Dalv, the first of the "six lv" (yin pitches), is paired with the twelfth month of Great Cold. This pairing resonates exquisitely with Great Cold's essence of "yin at its extreme while yang has already secretly germinated."
First, Dalv belongs to the "lv" (yin pitches), corresponding to Great Cold's "yin-qi at its extreme." Great Cold is the year's pinnacle of yin-qi, and Dalv as the first of the yin pitches matches this "old yin" moment.
But the deeper mystery is this: though Dalv belongs to the yin pitches, its function is to "assist Huangzhong and propagate yang-qi." Huangzhong (paired with the Winter Solstice, the return of one yang) is the pitch of "yang-qi's initial birth," the first and foundational of the twelve pitches. Dalv follows directly after Huangzhong (Huangzhong paired with the eleventh month, Dalv with the twelfth), and its role is to "assist" the yang-qi that Huangzhong initiated, helping this newly born yang-qi to further "propagate" and "grow." The History of the Han (Hanshu), "Treatise on Pitches and the Calendar," glosses Dalv's meaning as "lv" (companion) and "zhu" (assist)--assisting and accompanying the yang-qi born by Huangzhong, helping it to thrive. This perfectly matches Great Cold's Lin hexagram "two yang gradually growing" (yang-qi growing from one yang at the Winter Solstice to two yang)! Huangzhong births one yang (Winter Solstice); Dalv assists yang to grow (Great Cold, two yang)--the musical progression from Huangzhong to Dalv, and the hexagram progression from Fu to Lin, reveal the same process of "yang-qi germinating amid utmost yin and gradually strengthening."
II. "Huangzhong and Dalv": Why They Became the Symbol of Solemn Grandeur
"Huangzhong Dalv" has become one of Chinese culture's supreme symbols of solemnity, grandeur, and noble rectitude--used to describe music or literature of the highest sublimity. Why$8 Because Huangzhong and Dalv correspond to the most crucial turning point of the year (Winter Solstice, Great Cold--year's end and year's beginning, yang-qi's birth)--the most sacred, most solemn juncture of the cosmos's "ending to begin again" and "extreme cold, returning spring." What they "play" is the solemn overture of heaven and earth's yang-qi reborn, the grand symphony of year's end giving way to new year. When we describe the most sublime and rectitudinous music or prose as "Huangzhong Dalv," we are unwittingly echoing that most solemn cosmic moment that the Winter Solstice and Great Cold represent--extreme cold, returning spring; ending to begin again; life ceaselessly renewed.
III. Pitch-Pipe Qi-Observation: The Resonance of Heaven and Humanity at Great Cold's Pitch
The ancients' understanding of the relationship between musical pitches and seasonal timing reached an almost mystical height--the theory of "observing qi through pitch-pipes" (lv guan hou qi).
The ancients had a remarkable practice (recorded in the History of the Later Han, "Treatise on Pitches and the Calendar," among others): twelve pitch-pipes were buried by direction in a sealed chamber, their tubes filled with the burned ash of reed membranes (jia fu). When a given solar term arrived, the ash in the corresponding pipe would reportedly stir and fly out of its own accord, responding to "earth qi" (heaven and earth's yang-qi). At the Winter Solstice, Huangzhong's pipe ash would stir (responding to the return of one yang); around Great Cold, Dalv's pipe ash would stir (responding to two yang gradually growing).
This "pitch-pipe qi-observation" theory, from a modern perspective, certainly carries mystical coloring and lacks scientific basis. But the underlying concept is profoundly significant: it holds that the movement of heaven and earth's vital breath (especially yang-qi) exists in a deep "resonance" relationship with musical pitches. Great Cold's vital breath and Dalv's pitch resonate--the cosmic "frequency" of heaven and earth's yang-qi (two yang gradually growing) and Dalv's music (assisting Huangzhong, promoting yang-qi) vibrate in sympathy.
IV. Seeing the Way Through Pitch: Hearing "Endings and Beginnings Mutually Generating" in Dalv
Finally, let us return one last time from the angle of musical pitches to Great Cold's core of "when things end, they begin again."
The twelve pitches paired with twelve months form a complete "pitch-calendar" cycle: Huangzhong (eleventh month)--Dalv (twelfth month)--Taicu (first month)--...--Yingzhong (tenth month)--(returning to) Huangzhong. Observe the cycle's seam: after Yingzhong (paired with the tenth month, early winter, pure yin Kun hexagram), the cycle returns to Huangzhong (paired with the eleventh month, Winter Solstice, the return of one yang). The twelve pitches complete one revolution (Yingzhong) and begin again from Huangzhong--this is "when things end, they begin again" and "circulating without peril" at the level of musical pitches!
And Great Cold's Dalv occupies the critical "linking past and future" position in this pitch-calendar cycle--it follows Huangzhong above (the Winter Solstice's one yang, the cycle's "restart" point) and leads into Taicu below (Start of Spring's three yang, the new year's full unfolding). Dalv is therefore the pivot-tone connecting "year's end" (after Yingzhong and the tenth month) to "year's beginning" (Huangzhong's return, Taicu's unfolding)--just as Great Cold is the pivot-term connecting year's end and year's beginning in the solar term cycle.
In Dalv's pitch we hear the cosmic music of "endings and beginnings mutually generating." Seeing the Way through pitch: from Dalv's "assisting Huangzhong and propagating yang-qi," we hear Great Cold's "inheriting the year's end, inaugurating the new spring"; from the twelve pitches' "Yingzhong returning to Huangzhong," we hear the Twenty-Four Solar Terms' "when things end, they begin again, circulating without peril." The Way of musical pitches, the Way of the solar terms, and the Way of Heaven are all one and the same great symphony of "life ceaselessly renewed, endings and beginnings mutually generating."