Auspicious Snow Sealing the Earth: The Nascent Yang within Supreme Yin at the Major Snow Solar Term
This article offers a deep reading of Major Snow (Daxue) among the twenty-four solar terms, drawing upon pre-Qin Confucian and Daoist philosophy, etymological origins, astronomy, and phenology. It analyzes the etymology of 'da means flourishing — at this point snow flourishes,' examines the Hexagram of Return (Fu) with its 'single yang returning' in the zi month, and reveals the virtue of auspicious snow sealing and protecting nascent yang, along with the profound cosmology of 'supreme yin birthing yang — the heart of Heaven and Earth.'
Chapter Three: The Midwinter Month in the Record of Rites "Monthly Ordinances": A Tableau of Supreme Yin
I. The Nature of the Monthly Ordinances: A Guide to Action Between Heaven and Humanity
Among all pre-Qin texts, the most detailed and systematic description of Major Snow and the midwinter month in which it falls belongs to the "Monthly Ordinances" (Yue Ling) chapter of the Record of Rites (its content is highly consistent with the "Midwinter Record" of the Lushi Chunqiu; scholars generally consider the two to share a common source). The Monthly Ordinances are not a simple calendrical record but a complete guide to action between Heaven and humanity — they tell us, at specific temporal junctures, what the celestial phenomena are, how terrestrial beings behave, and what human affairs should be conducted.
The "Monthly Ordinances" begins by sketching a complete cosmic tableau for the midwinter month:
"In the midwinter month, the sun is in Dou (the Dipper). At dusk, the Eastern Wall culminates; at dawn, Zhen (the Chariot Platform) culminates."
These three statements indicate, respectively, the positions of the sun, the constellation culminating in the southern sky at dusk, and the constellation culminating at dawn. "The sun is in Dou" — the sun has traveled to the Dipper asterism; "at dusk, the Eastern Wall culminates" — at twilight, the Eastern Wall star stands at the meridian of the southern sky; "at dawn, Zhen culminates" — at daybreak, the Zhen star stands at the meridian. These stellar positions served as the ancients' astronomical basis for determining the season. Noteworthy is "the sun is in Dou" — the Dipper belongs to the seven mansions of the Northern Palace (Dark Warrior, Xuan Wu), and the sun's arrival here corresponds exactly to midwinter's northern, water-virtue season.
II. The Five-Phase Correspondences of the Midwinter Month: A Precision System
The Monthly Ordinances proceed to describe the five-phase attributes of the midwinter month:
"Its days are ren and gui; its sovereign is Zhuanxu; its spirit is Xuanming; its creature-class is the shelled; its musical note is yu; its number is six; its flavor is salty; its odor is putrid; its sacrifice is to the Pathway; the offering leads with the kidneys."
This passage constructs an extraordinarily precise system of cosmic correspondences. Let us analyze each element and observe how the ancients subsumed everything in the midwinter month — heavenly stems, sovereign deities, creature-classes, musical notes, symbolic numbers, flavors, odors, and sacrifices — under the governance of "water virtue" and "supreme yin."
"Its days are ren and gui" — The midwinter month corresponds to the celestial stems ren and gui, which belong to water among the five phases. The pairing is: jia and yi belong to wood (spring); bing and ding to fire (summer); wu and ji to earth (center/late summer); geng and xin to metal (autumn); ren and gui to water (winter). Midwinter is the very center of winter, when water virtue is deepest, hence the assignment to ren and gui. The water of ren and gui is contracting water, storing water, supremely yin water — precisely corresponding to the image of Major Snow's flourishing snow, frozen rivers, and sealed ground.
"Its sovereign is Zhuanxu" — The presiding sovereign of the midwinter month is Zhuanxu, the emperor of the north and of water virtue in ancient legend. The Huainanzi (Celestial Patterns) says: "The north is water; its sovereign is Zhuanxu, his minister is Xuanming, who wields authority and governs winter." Zhuanxu was known for profundity and quiet mystery, qualities perfectly consonant with winter's supreme yin and water's depth.
"Its spirit is Xuanming" — The assisting spirit of midwinter is Xuanming. Xuan means black, deep, hidden; ming means dark, concealed, stored away. The very name Xuanming paints a portrait of winter's supreme yin — everything has receded into darkness and depth. The Zuo Zhuan records: "The Water Administrator is called Xuanming." In remote antiquity, the office of Water Administrator was established to govern water affairs, and its tutelary spirit bore the name Xuanming. As water deity and winter deity, Xuanming presides over the freezing and sealing of Major Snow's season.
Why the need for both a "sovereign" and a "spirit"$24 This reflects a core principle of pre-Qin political philosophy: governance requires hierarchical division of labor. The sovereign is the supreme ruler who sets the grand direction; the spirit is the operative executor who carries out the sovereign's will. So it is in Heaven, and so in the human world. The Monthly Ordinances, through this correspondence between the heavenly and the terrestrial, provided cosmic legitimation for the human political order.
"Its creature-class is the shelled" — The representative animal category of the midwinter month is "shelled creatures" (jie chong) — turtles, soft-shell turtles, shellfish, crabs, and the like. In the pre-Qin classification of animals, all beings were divided into five categories: scaled creatures (fish, corresponding to spring), feathered creatures (birds, corresponding to summer), naked creatures (humans, corresponding to the center), furred creatures (beasts, corresponding to autumn), and shelled creatures (corresponding to winter). Shelled creatures correspond to winter because their hard, enclosed carapaces embody the very image of "storing," "firmness," and "closure." The shelled creature withdrawn into its shell is like all things stored within winter, like yang qi stored within supreme yin — a perfect correspondence with Major Snow's virtue of sealed storage in the animal kingdom.
"Its musical note is yu" — The musical note of midwinter is yu, the lowest, deepest, most distant and ethereal of the five notes (gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu). The low, deep resonance of the yu note corresponds precisely to winter's supreme yin and water's profundity. The ancients believed that each season possessed its specific "sound" — the vibrational frequency of Heaven and Earth's qi in winter resonated with the frequency of yu. What an astonishing and bold imagination — connecting acoustics to cosmology, positing a supra-material "resonance" pervading Heaven and Earth.
"Its number is six" — The symbolic number of midwinter is six. In the pre-Qin system of numerical arts, "Heaven One generates water; Earth Six completes it." Both one and six belong to water. One is water's generating number; six is its completing number. In winter, water virtue has matured, so it is paired with the completing number six, not the generating number one. This system of numerical-phase correspondences is extremely ancient, closely related to the traditions of the Hetu and Luoshu diagrams. In later sections on Major Snow and "six" — the six-pointed symmetry of snowflakes, the "using six" of the Book of Changes — we shall explore this mysterious numerical correspondence further.
"Its flavor is salty" — The flavor of midwinter is salty. Among the five flavors (sour, bitter, sweet, acrid, salty), the correspondences with the five phases are: sour belongs to wood (spring), bitter to fire (summer), sweet to earth (late summer), acrid to metal (autumn), salty to water (winter). Why does saltiness belong to water$25 Because seawater is salty, and the sea is the great completion of water; moreover, saltiness possesses the power to soften hardness, moisten downward, and enter the kidneys — all consonant with the nature of water.
"Its odor is putrid" — The odor of midwinter is xiu — "putrid," the scent of decay and age. All things, after autumn's harvest and winter's storage, return to earth, return to silence; within this is an aura of sinking, composting, returning to the root — this is "putrid." Yet "putrid" is by no means pure annihilation — within decay, new life is gestating, just as fallen leaves become spring soil and seeds await sprouting within the composting earth. The putrid aura is an aura of returning to the root, an aura of storing up strength for the coming year's growth.
"Its sacrifice is to the Pathway" — The object of sacrifice in midwinter is xing — the spirit of roads. Among the five household sacrifices (hu, zao, zhong liu, men, xing), the Pathway belongs to winter. Why sacrifice to the road spirit in winter$26 One explanation: winter's water virtue governs flow and downward movement, and roads are the places of flow and passage. Another: at winter's year-end, people travel to ancestral sacrifices and return to their hometowns for reunion — travel matters abound, so one sacrifices to the road spirit for safe passage.
"The offering leads with the kidneys" — In sacrificial rites, the organ presented first is the kidney. Among the five organs and five phases, the kidneys belong to water. Winter belongs to water, hence midwinter sacrifices lead with the kidneys. In the medical tradition, the kidneys govern the storage of essence, the regulation of fluids, and the virtue of sealed preservation — they are the bearers of the body's "winter storing" virtue.
III. The Pitch-Pipe Huangzhong: Major Snow and the Foundation of the Twelve Pitches
The Monthly Ordinances include one more statement of extraordinary importance regarding the midwinter month:
"Its note is yu; its pitch-pipe is Huangzhong (Yellow Bell)."
"Its pitch-pipe is Huangzhong" — the pitch-pipe corresponding to midwinter is the Yellow Bell. These four characters conceal one of Major Snow's most profound secrets.
Huangzhong is the first and the foundation of the twelve pitch-pipes. In the pre-Qin system uniting pitch-pipes and the calendar, the twelve pitches correspond to the twelve months: the eleventh month (midwinter) to Huangzhong, the twelfth to Dalv, the first to Taicu, and so on. That the eleventh month corresponds to Huangzhong is no accident — it forms a deep resonance with the zi month's astronomical significance of "a single yang returning." We shall devote a later chapter to exploring why Huangzhong is the foundation of the twelve pitches and its intrinsic connection with the return of yang.
IV. The Son of Heaven's Conduct and Edicts in the Midwinter Month
The Monthly Ordinances prescribe the Son of Heaven's behavior in midwinter in exacting detail:
"The Son of Heaven dwells in the Great Chamber of the Dark Hall, rides the dark chariot, drives iron-grey horses, flies dark banners, wears black garments, bears dark jade, eats millet and pork; his vessels are capacious and deep-lidded."
Everything is xuan — dark, black. This is no aesthetic preference but a cosmological requirement: winter belongs to water, and water's color is black. The Son of Heaven, as intermediary between Heaven and Earth, must harmonize his every action with the reigning cosmic principle. Wearing black is not for appearance but for resonance with the "water virtue" of Heaven and Earth. Pork (zhi, the pig) is the water animal; millet too corresponds to winter virtue. Even the vessels are "capacious and deep-lidded" — yan means covered, deeply closed, corresponding to winter's virtue of "storing."
The Monthly Ordinances then prescribe the most essential edicts of the midwinter month — these constitute the fundamental guidelines for human cultivation during Major Snow:
"In this month, command the officials thus: 'No earthworks shall be undertaken. Take care not to uncover what is covered. Do not open up rooms or houses, nor mobilize the masses — secure everything and keep it closed. If the earth's qi should leak, this would be called opening the chambers of Heaven and Earth; all hibernating things would die, the people would surely suffer pestilence, and death would follow in its wake.' This month is called the 'month of fullness' (chang yue)."
This passage is of the utmost importance. "No earthworks shall be undertaken" — do not initiate construction projects. "Take care not to uncover what is covered" — do not strip away coverings. "Do not open up rooms or houses, nor mobilize the masses" — do not tear apart buildings, do not conscript the populace for labor. "Secure everything and keep it closed" — all must be fastened and sealed. Why$27 "If the earth's qi should leak, this would be called opening the chambers of Heaven and Earth" — at this time, the earth's qi lies deeply stored within; if one recklessly stirs the soil or strips away covers, it is as if one has thrown open the chambers in which Heaven and Earth store their yang qi, causing the earth's qi to escape. The consequences: "all hibernating things would die, the people would surely suffer pestilence, and death would follow in its wake."
"This month is called the 'month of fullness'" — Zheng Xuan's commentary glosses chang as "replete, full." The Month of Fullness is the month of substance, plenitude, and nourished saturation. Outward closure is precisely for the sake of inward fullness. Nearly the entire philosophy of Major Snow's sealed storage is condensed into these two characters: only by storing deeply without leaking can one fill to the brim within; only by closing the exterior can the interior flow freely.
V. The Monthly Ordinances' Warning: Consequences of Untimely Decrees
After describing what should be done in the midwinter month, the Monthly Ordinances issue stern warnings about the consequences of improper actions:
"If in midwinter one enacts the decrees of summer, the state will suffer drought, murky fog will gather, and thunder will sound. If one enacts the decrees of autumn, untimely rain will fall, gourds will fail to ripen, and the state will suffer great warfare. If one enacts the decrees of spring, locusts will ravage, springs will dry up, and the people will be afflicted with scabies and sores."
The logic behind these warnings rests upon a core belief: each season possesses its specific qi, and the character of political decrees likewise possesses its specific qi. Winter's decrees should be "storing," "closing," "still." If, in the season of proper "storing," one enacts decrees proper to "growing" (summer), "gathering" (autumn), or "engendering" (spring), one acts against the season, throwing the qi of Heaven and Earth into disorder and thereby causing climatic and human calamity. The phrase "thunder will sound" is especially cautionary — thunder should properly sound at the Awakening of Insects in spring (signaling yang qi rising from the earth). If it sounds recklessly in midwinter's season of sealed storage, it portends yang qi failing to store properly and leaking prematurely.
From a modern perspective, this causal logic naturally lacks scientific grounding. Yet viewed from another angle, the Monthly Ordinances' warnings contain profound wisdom: all things have their proper time for action and their proper time for concealment. To force expansion and expenditure during a time that calls for contraction and nourishment, to recklessly disturb what should be deeply stored — this inevitably damages the root. This insight retains its value whether applied to statecraft, health cultivation, or moral self-refinement.