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 Five: The Lin (Approach) Hexagram of the Zhouyi and the Principle That Extremes Must Reverse
I. The Lin Hexagram: Earth over Lake, Two Yang Lines Growing
We have mentioned multiple times that the twelfth month (Chou month) in which Great Cold falls corresponds, in the twelve waxing-and-waning hexagram system, to the "Lin" (Approach) hexagram. Let us now delve into this hexagram to see how it reveals, with the utmost precision, the essential nature of Great Cold--"the extreme of yin-cold, yet yang-qi already growing."
The Lin hexagram (Dui below, Kun above; Lake below, Earth above; "Earth over Lake, Approach") has its lower trigram as Dui (Lake) and its upper trigram as Kun (Earth). Examining the line structure: the bottom two lines are yang (Initial Nine, Nine in the Second), while the four lines above are yin--making this a "two yang" hexagram.
In the twelve waxing-and-waning hexagram system, the cycle of yin-yang waxing and waning proceeds as follows: the tenth month, Kun hexagram (six yin lines, pure yin), corresponds to the extreme of yin with no yang whatsoever--early winter; the eleventh month, Fu (Return) hexagram (one yang born at the bottom), corresponds to the Winter Solstice--"the return of one yang," yang-qi beginning to germinate amid utmost yin; the twelfth month, Lin hexagram (two yang growing), corresponds to the months of Minor Cold and Great Cold--yang-qi has grown to the second line; the first month, Tai (Peace) hexagram (three yang), corresponds to Start of Spring--"three yang usher in peace"; the second month, Dazhuang (Great Strength, four yang); the third month, Guai (Breakthrough, five yang); the fourth month, Qian (the Creative, six yang, pure yang), corresponds to the month of Start of Summer--yang-qi at its zenith... Thereafter yin-qi germinates: the fifth month, Gou (Encountering, one yin born); the sixth month, Dun (Retreat); the seventh month, Pi (Stagnation); the eighth month, Guan (Contemplation); the ninth month, Bo (Splitting Apart); the tenth month returns to Kun--and the cycle repeats.
Observe Great Cold's position in this cycle: it sits in the Lin hexagram--a "two yang" hexagram. What does this mean$1 It means that in the twelfth month where Great Cold falls, yang-qi is no longer the newly germinated "one yang" of the Winter Solstice, but has already grown to "two yang"--steadily, determinedly growing! Though the ground is frozen and yin-qi pervades, at the hexagram's deepest level (the lower trigram), two yang lines have already firmly established themselves, and they are "gradually growing" (jin zhang) upward, preparing to advance toward the third line (Start of Spring's three yang).
This is the Lin hexagram's most profound revelation about Great Cold: Great Cold's utmost yin and cold are merely surface appearances--the appearance presented by the four yin lines of the upper trigram. Beneath that surface, at the hexagram's very foundation, two yang lines are growing. Yin is receding, yang is advancing; cold is ending, spring is coming. The Lin hexagram, with irrefutable hexagrammatic logic, confirms everything we have said: within Great Cold, yang-qi has been born and has already grown to two yang.
II. What Does "Approach" (Lin) Mean$2 The Dual Significance of Yang-Qi Approaching
The character "lin" (approach) itself is laden with meaning.
The Shuowen Jiezi explains: "Lin means to oversee from above." The original meaning is "to look down from a height," "to survey from above." Extended meanings include "to draw near," "to arrive," "to preside over." The Lin hexagram is named "Approach" because, as the Tuan Zhuan explains: "In Approach, the firm gradually grows... great success through what is correct--such is the Way of Heaven." The "firm" (yang) gradually grows, and therefore "great success through correctness" (great flourishing in the right way)--this is Heaven's law.
Let us appreciate the dual significance of "approach" in the context of Great Cold.
First, "yang-qi approaches from below." In the Lin hexagram, two yang lines below grow upward--yang-qi from below "approaches" yin-qi, about to take the dominant position. During Great Cold, underground yang-qi (two yang) is "approaching" the surface yin-cold, preparing to break through the frozen ground and proclaim spring. This "approach" is yang-qi bearing down on yin-qi with inexorable force--though yin-qi still holds the surface advantage, yang's "approach" is already irresistible, advancing step by step from below, destined to supplant yin.
Second, "spring approaches." Lin also means "draws near," "arrives." The Lin hexagram paired with Great Cold, by its very name, announces: "Spring is approaching!" In the year's coldest solar term, the ancients paired it with the "Approach" hexagram, effectively delivering an unmistakable message at the moment of greatest cold: do not despair--spring is "approaching," it is already within arm's reach. This wisdom of naming the coldest time "Approach" (arriving, imminent) once again demonstrates the ancients' profound optimism of "seeing hope at the very point of despair."
III. "Waxing and Waning, Filling and Emptying" in the Lin Hexagram's Commentary on the Judgment
The Tuan Zhuan of the Lin hexagram contains another statement of great depth: "By the eighth month there will be misfortune, for the waning will not be long in coming."
At first glance this seems puzzling: Lin is clearly an auspicious image of yang growing--why warn of "misfortune in the eighth month"$3 The Tuan Zhuan is cautioning that although yang is currently growing (twelfth month, Lin hexagram), Heaven's Way cycles through filling and emptying, waxing and waning--by the eighth month (the Guan hexagram, with four yin and two yang, yin already dominant), yang will have begun to recede. Hence "misfortune in the eighth month." This is a preemptive warning, issued while yang is growing, that yang must eventually wane.
The deep meaning of this statement lies in its revelation of the complete cycle of "waxing and waning, filling and emptying" (xiaoxi yingxu). "Waning" (xiao) is decline; "waxing" (xi) is growth; "filling" (ying) is fullness; "emptying" (xu) is void. The Way of Heaven is never one-directional growth alone, nor decline alone, but the eternal cycling of waxing and waning, filling and emptying. The Lin hexagram, while yang is growing (Great Cold), warns of "eighth-month misfortune" (yang will wane), just as the Qian hexagram (at Start of Summer's peak of yang) already contains the seed of the Gou hexagram's "one yin born" (yin about to germinate). This sobriety of "perceiving decline amid flourishing, seeing waning amid waxing" is the essence of the Zhouyi's dialectical wisdom.
Understood in reverse, this is also the fundamental guarantee of Great Cold's "extreme cold, returning spring": since the Way of Heaven is a cycle of "waxing and waning, filling and emptying," the extreme flourishing of yin (Great Cold) can never persist indefinitely--what is full must empty, what has grown must wane, and the utmost flourishing of yin is precisely the moment yang begins to grow. The Lin hexagram's Tuan Zhuan speaks on one hand of yang growing ("the firm gradually grows") and on the other warns that yang will eventually wane ("eighth-month misfortune"), asking us to grasp the complete cycle of "nothing goes without return": there is no eternal cold, nor eternal warmth; no eternal flourishing, nor eternal decline. Great Cold's utmost yin is destined to "wane," destined to yield to Start of Spring's growing yang--this is the inviolable law of Heaven's cycling.
IV. From the Fu (Return) to the Lin (Approach) Hexagram: From "One Yang Returns" to "Two Yang Gradually Grow"
To fully understand the Lin hexagram of Great Cold, we must view it in conjunction with its predecessor--the Fu (Return) hexagram of the Winter Solstice.
The Fu hexagram (Zhen below, Kun above; Thunder below, Earth above; "Earth over Thunder, Return"): one yang born beneath five yin, corresponding to the Winter Solstice. The Commentary on the Judgment of the Fu hexagram contains a statement famous through the ages: "In Return, one sees the heart of heaven and earth!" Why does the return of one yang reveal "the heart of heaven and earth"$4 Because the heart of heaven and earth is "ceaseless renewal of life" (sheng sheng)--even in the utmost yin and cold and deathly stillness, it must still germinate a thread of yang-qi, nurture a ray of life's potential. The Winter Solstice's thread of initial yang (one yang) is the first manifestation of heaven and earth's "virtue of loving life," their fundamental heart of "ceaselessly renewing life."
And the Lin hexagram of Great Cold (two yang) is the continuation and strengthening of the Fu hexagram's "one yang." If the Fu hexagram at the Winter Solstice is "the heart of heaven and earth" first stirring (the return of one yang), then the Lin hexagram at Great Cold is "the heart of heaven and earth" growing robust (two yang gradually growing). Heaven and earth germinated one yang at the Winter Solstice, and by Great Cold have nurtured it into two yang--that "heart of ceaseless renewal" has not only survived the cruelest cold of deep winter but has grown ever stronger, ever more determinedly reaching upward.
What deep consolation and inspiration this gives us! Although Great Cold is the coldest, "the heart of heaven and earth" (the yang of ceaseless renewal) has not only not been extinguished but has grown from the Winter Solstice's one yang to Great Cold's two yang--it is quietly strengthening amid the bitter cold, awaiting its breakthrough at Start of Spring (three yang ushering in peace). Through the Lin hexagram, what we see is not Great Cold's deathly silence but the ever-more-robust "heart of heaven and earth" within it. The deeper the cold, the firmer the will to renew life--this is heaven and earth's deepest, most moving heart.