Chapter 9: The Phenological World of Lichun (Part Three): Fish Rise and Bear the Ice

I. "Fish Rise and Bear the Ice": Life Rising within the Tidings of Spring

The third pentad of Lichun is "fish rise and bear the ice" (also written "fish rise to the ice"). The Yi Zhou Shu's "Explanation of the Seasonal Instructions" records: "Five days later, fish rise to the ice" ((立春)又五日，鱼上冰). The Collected Explanations of the Seventy-Two Pentads of the Monthly Ordinances (Yueling Qishi'er Hou Jijie) gives this as "fish rise and bear the ice" (鱼陟负冰). "Zhi" (陟) means to ascend, to rise; "fu" (负) means to bear upon one's back. "Fish rise and bear the ice" depicts this vivid scene: as the river ice begins to melt and thin, fish that have lain dormant in the deep water, sensing the warming of the upper water layer and the summons of yang qi, begin to swim upward, approaching the surface, approaching the thin ice, as if bearing upon their backs that not-yet-fully-melted sheet of thin ice.

What a subtle, what a poetic observation this is! In winter, fish lie dormant in the deep water at the river bottom, escaping the cold to pass the winter; at Lichun, as the east wind melts the ice and the upper water layer warms, the fish begin to swim upward, drawing near that thinning layer of ice. The two characters "fu bing" (负冰, "bearing the ice") are especially vivid—at this point the ice has not yet fully melted, and the fish have already risen beneath it; viewed from above, it appears as though the fish are "bearing" the thin ice upon their backs as they swim. This image captures, to the fullest, the transitional climate of Lichun—"warmth just stirring, cold not yet gone," "the lingering chill of early spring"—warmth has already begun (the fish rise), yet cold has not yet fully departed (the ice still remains).

II. Why Does the Third Pentad Conclude with "Fish"$5 The Correspondence between Scaly Creatures and Spring

Lichun's Three Pentads proceed in order: "the east wind melts the ice" (the transformation of wind and qi), "hibernating insects begin to stir" (the awakening of land-dwelling insects), and "fish rise and bear the ice" (the activity of fish in the water). Is there deeper meaning in this ordering$6 Why does the third pentad, the concluding pentad, fall upon "fish"$7

This corresponds precisely to the correlation of "its creatures are the scaly ones" in the "Monthly Ordinances" of the Book of Rites, discussed earlier. In the first month of spring, the representative category of creature is the "scaly creatures"—creatures bearing scales, of which fish are the typical representative. That Lichun's Three Pentads conclude with "fish rise and bear the ice" is precisely the phenological confirmation of this Five-Phase correlation, "spring belongs to the scaly creatures." "The east wind melts the ice" is the pentad of "Heaven" (qi, wind); "hibernating insects begin to stir" is the pentad of "Earth" (the land, within the soil); "fish rise and bear the ice" is the pentad of "Water"—life in the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Water has all been awakened by spring's qi, and thus Lichun's revival is rendered complete. This phenological observation, proceeding from Heaven to Earth to Water, covering every realm, once again reflects the ancients' rigor and thoroughness in "cross-verification" and "comprehensive resonance."

Looking deeper still, fish belong to the scaly creatures, and so does the dragon—the rising of the fish may be regarded as the beginning of the scaly creatures' stirring with spring's qi, whose culmination is "the dragon raises its head" in the second month of spring. The hibernating dragon rising with the coming of spring corresponds precisely to the image of Wood virtue's generation and growth, of yang qi's ascent. From Lichun's "fish rise and bear the ice," the first stirring of the scaly creatures, to the second month's "the dragon raises its head," the vigorous rising of the hibernating dragon, we trace a single thread along which the scaly creatures gradually awaken and rouse themselves with the progress of spring's qi. Concluding with "fish" thus lays the groundwork for the activity of scaly creatures throughout the whole of spring—it is the herald of the dragon's imminent rising.

III. Contemplating the Three Pentads Together: A Complete Picture of "Heaven and Earth Beginning to Interact"

Let us view Lichun's Three Pentads together, as a single, unified contemplation. "The east wind melts the ice" is yang qi first stirring at the "earth's surface," the level of wind and qi; "hibernating insects begin to stir" is yang qi awakening the life hidden "within the earth," the level of soil and insects; "fish rise and bear the ice" is yang qi's warmth permeating "within the water," fish rising, the level of water and scaly creatures. Taken together, the three pentads form a complete panoramic picture of Lichun as "Heaven and Earth beginning to interact, the myriad things first stirring."

The core of this panoramic picture is the character "movement" (动), and even more so, the character "communion" (通). The Heaven and Earth of winter are "closed," "still"—ice sealed, insects hibernating, fish sunk in the depths; the Heaven and Earth of Lichun are "open," "moving"—ice melting, insects stirring, fish rising. From wind (the east wind melts the ice) to soil (hibernating insects begin to stir) to water (fish rise and bear the ice), yang qi successively interpenetrates the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Water, awakening the three categories of life—qi, insects, and fish. This is precisely the most complete, most vivid unfolding, at the phenological level, of the Tai hexagram's "Heaven and Earth in communion, the myriad things flowing freely."

What must be emphasized once more is that what Lichun's Three Pentads depict are, without exception, critical threshold states of "first stirring," "beginning to stir," "just rising"—the east wind has only just begun to blow, the solid ice has only just begun to melt, the hibernating insects have only just awakened, the swimming fish have only just risen. Everything still carries the lingering chill of winter; everything still stands at the beginning, "about to sprout yet not yet flourishing." This is precisely the fundamental quality of Lichun as "the year's beginning," "the beginning of spring": it is not spring's flourishing (that belongs to the middle and last months of spring), but spring's beginning, spring's first sprouting, spring's first breath. Through these three exceedingly subtle phenological signs, the ancients sounded the very first beat of the opening drum for an entire year's generation and growth.