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 Seven: The Daoist Perspective--"Reversal Is the Movement of the Way" and "Returning to the Root"
I. "Reversal Is the Movement of the Way": Great Cold's "Reversal"
The Daoist understanding of Great Cold is concentrated in the single word "reversal" (fan). We cited the Most High's (Laozi's) famous words earlier; now let us examine them in depth.
Chapter 40 of the Daodejing states: "Reversal is the movement of the Way; weakness is the function of the Way. All things under heaven are born from being; being is born from non-being."
These sixteen characters are the core of Daoist cosmology and the key to understanding Great Cold. "Reversal is the movement of the Way"--the Way's movement is forever one of "reversal": what goes returns, what flourishes declines, what reaches its extreme turns. Great Cold is the most magnificent demonstration of "reversal is the movement of the Way" within a single year: when cold reaches its extreme (Great Cold), it must "reverse" toward warmth (Start of Spring); when yin reaches its extreme, it must "reverse" toward yang; when storage reaches its extreme, it must "reverse" toward emergence. Great Cold's "ending" is precisely the critical point of the Way's "reversal"--here the year's vital breath "reverses" direction, from descending (yin growing) to ascending (yang growing), from sealed concealment to emergence and growth.
Pay special attention to "weakness is the function of the Way," for it is crucial to understanding Great Cold. At Great Cold, although yang-qi has already germinated (the Lin hexagram's two yang), it remains "weak"--hidden deep underground, shrouded by powerful yin-cold, far from being able to dominate heaven and earth. Yet it is precisely this "weak" yang-qi that is how the Way functions ("weakness is the function of the Way"). The Way does not operate through "strength" but through "weakness"--that seemingly feeble, deeply hidden yang-qi is the true force about to overturn the entire regime of cold and bring springtime to all under heaven. The soft overcomes the hard, the weak yang will ultimately prevail over the strong yin--this is Great Cold's Daoist wisdom of "the weak overcoming the strong, the soft overcoming the hard."
"Being is born from non-being" also finds confirmation at Great Cold. The "being" of Start of Spring (the flourishing emergence of all things)--whence does it come$17 From Great Cold's "non-being" (all things sealed in concealment, heaven and earth empty and still). Great Cold's utmost yin and stillness, seemingly possessing nothing (non-being), is in truth the mother of all the coming spring's vitality (being). "Being is born from non-being"--spring's "being" is born from winter's "non-being"; the flourishing of all things is gestated in year-end's emptiness.
II. "All Things Teeming, Each Returns to Its Root": Great Cold's "Return to Root"
In our reading of Start of Summer, we cited Chapter 16 of the Daodejing on "all things springing up together, I thereby observe their return." If Start of Summer is the season of "all things springing up" (growth, activity), then Great Cold is the other half of this statement--the season of "each returning to its root." Let us revisit the full passage:
"Attain the utmost emptiness; hold fast to perfect stillness. All things spring up together; I thereby observe their return. All things teem and proliferate, yet each returns to its root. Returning to the root is called stillness; stillness is called returning to destiny. Returning to destiny is called constancy; knowing constancy is called illumination. Not knowing constancy, one acts recklessly and invites misfortune."
"Attain the utmost emptiness; hold fast to perfect stillness"--these eight characters seem tailor-made for Great Cold! Great Cold is the year's most "empty," most "still" season--heaven and earth in vacant silence (utmost emptiness), all things sunk in dormancy (perfect stillness). At such a time, one too should "attain emptiness and hold stillness," allowing body and mind to enter the state of vacant stillness in resonance with heaven and earth.
"All things teem and proliferate, yet each returns to its root"--the teeming multitudes of things each return to their fundamental origin. This is precisely the essence of Great Cold, of winter's "storage": at year's end, all things "return to their root"--the vital energy of trees and grasses retreats to the roots, animals return to hibernation, all outward splendor is gathered in, withdrawn, and returned to the most fundamental, most primal source of life. Great Cold is the deepest, most thoroughgoing moment of "returning to root."
"Returning to the root is called stillness; stillness is called returning to destiny"--returning to root is called "stillness," and stillness is called "returning to destiny" (fu ming, restoring life's original source). Note that "returning to root" and "stillness" in the Most High's teaching are by no means passive, deathly silence, but rather "returning to destiny"--restoring and renewing life's fundamental source! All things returning to root, lying dormant in Great Cold, exist not for death but for "returning to destiny"--to rest, accumulate, and renew at life's source, preparing for the "rebirth" of the coming spring. Great Cold's "stillness" is a "stillness" gestating new life; Great Cold's "returning to root" is a "returning to root" that will send forth new branches in spring.
"Returning to destiny is called constancy; knowing constancy is called illumination"--returning to destiny is called "constancy" (chang, eternal law); understanding this eternal law is called "illumination" (ming, wisdom). The cycle of all things returning to root and returning to destiny, ending to begin again--this is "constancy," the eternal, unchanging law of Heaven. Understanding this "constancy" (understanding that Great Cold's storage must lead to Start of Spring's birth, understanding that endings give rise to beginnings) is "illumination." And "not knowing constancy, acting recklessly invites misfortune"--not understanding this law and acting heedlessly invites calamity.
The Most High's passage reads as the most profound philosophical commentary on Great Cold. It tells us: Great Cold's returning to root, emptiness and stillness, sealed concealment are not life's termination but the necessary process of life's "returning to destiny" (renewing its source). Understanding this is understanding "constancy" and achieving "illumination." Those who grow impatient with "returning to root in stillness" and rush into reckless action will "act recklessly and invite misfortune"--violating Great Cold's cosmic law of "store when storage is called for," one inevitably suffers the consequences.
III. "Circulating Without Peril": The Cyclical Nature of the Way
The Most High describes the "Way" in Chapter 25 of the Daodejing: "There was something formed from chaos, born before heaven and earth. Silent and void, standing alone without change, circulating without peril--it may be regarded as the mother of heaven and earth."
In our reading of Start of Summer, we cited this passage to discuss the "greatness" of the Way. Now at Great Cold, we must pay particular attention to the five characters "circulating without peril" (zhou xing er bu dai). "Circulating" (zhou xing)--revolving endlessly; "without peril" (bu dai)--never stopping, never exhausting. One of the Way's fundamental characteristics is "circulating without peril"--like an eternally turning circle, cycling back and forth, ceaselessly renewing life, never stopping, never running dry.
The Twenty-Four Solar Terms are the most perfect embodiment of the Way's "circulating without peril." From Start of Spring to Great Cold, twenty-four terms complete one revolution (circulating), then begin again from Start of Spring, without end (without peril). And Great Cold, as the seam of this "circulating" circle--both the point where one revolution's "course" reaches its end and the point where the next revolution's "course" begins--most fully embodies the mystery of "circulating without peril." Great Cold is not the terminus of the Way's "course" (that would mean it had "periled," stopped), but rather the turning point where the Way's "course" revolves and begins anew. Upon reaching Great Cold, the Way does not halt but "circulates"--turns the corner, sets out once more, heading toward Start of Spring.
"Standing alone without change" also finds confirmation at Great Cold. No matter how many alternations of cold and heat, birth and growth and harvest and storage a year's cycle brings, the "Way" that causes the four seasons to revolve and all things to live and die remains forever "standing alone without change"--it does not arise and perish with the seasons, does not increase or diminish with cold and heat, but eternally, freely operates. Great Cold's utmost cold and Start of Summer's utmost heat are merely different stages in the Way's "circulation"; the Way itself transcends all such changes, "standing alone without change."
IV. Master Zhuang's "Being at Ease with the Times and Dwelling in Accord"
Master Zhuang (Zhuangzi) held an exceedingly liberated attitude toward "time" and "destiny," an attitude of particular wisdom in facing Great Cold (year's end, utmost cold, yin at its extreme).
Zhuangzi, "The Secret of Caring for Life" (Yangsheng Zhu): "When it comes, the Master accepts it as timely; when it goes, the Master accepts it as natural. Being at ease with the times and dwelling in accord, sorrow and joy cannot enter."
"Being at ease with the times and dwelling in accord" (an shi er chu shun)--this is Master Zhuang's fundamental attitude toward all temporal change, all life and death, all flourishing and decline. Applied to Great Cold: when Great Cold arrives, when bitter cold envelops all, when the year nears its end--neither grieve nor grow anxious nor force things, but "be at ease" with this "time" (accept the year-end's bitter cold and silence with serenity), "dwell in accord" with this change (accord with the Way of all things' sealed concealment, returning to root). When cold comes, be at ease with cold; when the year ends, accord with ending--without resistance, without sorrow, for one knows deeply that this "cold" and this "ending" are both necessary and beautiful links in the Way of Heaven's cycle; after cold must come warmth, after ending must come beginning.
This state of "being at ease with the times and dwelling in accord" grants a person profound tranquility and composure amid Great Cold's bitter cold. Rather than anxiously yearning for spring and complaining about the cold in deep winter, one serenely and even gladly receives the year-end's crystalline solitude--in the Great Cold when all things return to their roots, one allows one's own body and mind to return to root as well, savoring heaven and earth's annual "great stillness." This "great stillness" is not deathly silence but a serenity brimming with infinite vitality, filled with the power of "returning to destiny."
V. "Returning to the Infant," "Returning to the Uncarved Block": Great Cold's Realm of Returning to Simplicity
The Most High says in Chapter 28 of the Daodejing: "Know the masculine, keep to the feminine, be the valley of all under heaven. Being the valley of all under heaven, constant virtue does not depart, and one returns to the infant. ... Know the glorious, keep to the humble, be the valley of all under heaven. Being the valley of all under heaven, constant virtue is sufficient, and one returns to the uncarved block."
The repeated "returning" here--returning to the infant, returning to the uncarved block (pu)--resonates deeply with Great Cold's significance of "returning to root" and "returning to destiny," revealing a life-realm that Great Cold symbolizes: returning to simplicity and truth.
"Returning to the infant"--recovering the infant's state of purity, softness, unadorned naturalness, and vitality held within. The infant appears weak and helpless, yet contains the most vigorous life force and the purest innocence--just like Great Cold's "weak" and deeply hidden yang-qi (the Lin hexagram's two yang), which appears feeble but harbors the entire power to overturn winter and bring springtime to all under heaven. Great Cold is the moment when heaven and earth "return to the infant"--the year's splendor and clamor have all faded, heaven and earth have returned to the most plain, most genuine, most Way-proximate state, and new life (the coming spring's yang-qi) is quietly gestating within this primal simplicity, like an infant in the womb.
"Returning to the uncarved block"--recovering "pu" (the unsplit, original log, symbolizing the Way's primordial, whole, unadorned state). Great Cold's heaven and earth, stripped of spring's brilliance, summer's lushness, and autumn's abundance, present a scene of plain, simple, genuine beauty--white snow covers the earth, all things rest in silence, heaven and earth seem to have returned to their initial, unornamented state of "the uncarved block." This "returning to the uncarved block" is not impoverishment but plenitude in another form--a profound return to life's source after all outward splendor has been gathered in. Within this "uncarved block" lie infinite possibilities for launching the next cycle of abundance.
Through "returning to the infant" and "returning to the uncarved block," Daoism reveals Great Cold's deepest life-realm: it is a magnificent "return to root and truth." The year's clamor, splendor, and bustle all settle and distill at Great Cold, returning to their source. And it is precisely this return to source that enables the next cycle of life to set forth from the purest, most unadorned, most vitality-laden starting point. Great Cold's "returning to simplicity" is for Start of Spring's "renewal"; returning to the root is precisely for opening the new.