Chinese farming wisdom amazes the world, ancient agricultural techniques draw close attention
Recently, the 24 solar terms were officially inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, adding another "Chinese symbol" to the world's heritage. The 24 solar terms are known as the "time wisdom" of the farming era; they perfectly combine astronomy, phenology, farming and folk customs, and have been used by the people of our country for thousands of years.
This spiritual code and ancient wisdom, engraved with the imprint of farming civilization and pulsing with the vein of traditional culture, still illuminates our lives and inspires our wisdom today, as we pursue the win-win-win of "production, life and ecology" and build a beautiful China. The successful inscription of the 24 solar terms is of far-reaching significance for inspiring the pride of those working in agriculture, rural areas and farmers, enhancing our country's agricultural confidence and innovation capacity, and creating a modern new farming civilization.
The 24 solar terms are a great contribution of Chinese farming civilization to humanity. In long-term farming practice, our ancestors found that crop cultivation needs to follow the movement of the sun. The 24 solar terms are a meteorological calendar summarized by the ancients based on the sun's influence on the Earth over the course of a year, used to guide farming activities. Through the observatory, the ancients measured the shadow of the sun at noon; the shadow is shortest in summer and longest in winter. The period between the longest (winter solstice) and the shortest (summer solstice) was divided into 24 equal parts, and thus the 24 solar terms were produced. They have been in use for more than 2,000 years since the Qin and Han dynasties.
According to the patterns of the 24 solar terms, the working people of our country created a wealth of farming proverbs. For example, "At the start of spring the weather gradually warms, and at Rain Water it is busy spreading fertilizer", "When the Awakening of Insects arrives, the hoe never rests", "Around Grain Buds, plant melons and beans", and so on. With the help of the solar terms, farmers plow in spring, weed in summer, harvest in autumn and store in winter, fixing the year into a cyclical system of crop growth, cultivation and storage that includes plowing, fertilizing, irrigating and harvesting, and fixing time, production and life into a state in which people correspond with, and even become one with, the way of heaven. The 24 solar terms are a vivid expression of the Chinese people's respect for and adaptation to nature. Guided by this wisdom, the Chinese nation created a traditional agriculture recognized throughout the world for its brilliance.
The 24 solar terms also profoundly influence people's ways of thinking and codes of behavior. They carry the unique charm of Chinese philosophy, making the life-world of the Chinese people a world of flowing spirit and rhythm. They give extended life its "punctuation marks" and create a Chinese-style life full of festive poetry.
The beauty of the solar terms is a gift from the sun. One solar term after another seems like "the footsteps of the sun", which each of us can perceive from the coming of cold and the going of heat and from changes in phenology. Thus, in the minds of ordinary people, Awakening of Insects "is a spring thunder waking the little insects sleeping in the soil, and bamboo shoots pushing up through the earth"; Grain Buds "is the wild growth of the wheat fields, every stalk of wheat becoming full, all of it upward strength in the sunlight". In many places, ordinary people prepare their daily supplies according to "pickle vegetables at Minor Snow, cure meat at Major Snow"; the customs of "eating green rice balls at Pure Brightness, eating watermelon at the start of autumn" and "dumplings at winter solstice, noodles at summer solstice" are still popular; modern health preservation also values the solar terms, such as "nourish yang in spring and summer, nourish yin in autumn and winter" and "treat winter diseases in summer", and so on.
Many solar terms are accompanied by rich and colorful folk activities. For example: standing eggs upright at Spring Equinox, spring outings and tomb sweeping at Pure Brightness, picking tea at Grain Rain, tasting new rice at Minor Heat, eating pineapple at Major Heat, not exposing the body at White Dew, and so on. In some places, the solar terms are still celebrated almost like festivals, such as the intangible cultural heritage item Sanmen Winter Sacrifice, the Zhuang Frost's Descent Festival, and the Miao Autumn Chase. In such folk customs, traditional culture is inherited, spread and carried forward, increasing the sense of identity with national culture.
The 24 solar terms and related activities unite ethnic groups and harmonize heaven and humanity, and are full of charm, helping to dissolve the life anxiety and spiritual loneliness of urban people living in a forest of steel and concrete, and are therefore extremely valuable for developing leisure agriculture and rural tourism.
The successful inscription of the 24 solar terms is not the end point, but a new starting point for inheritance and protection. The true purpose of intangible cultural heritage protection is to pass on cultural traditions for the future and provide momentum for the innovation of contemporary Chinese culture and the development of world civilization.
Through their understanding and grasp of the laws of agricultural production, the ancients created and cultivated the pride of Chinese farming civilization, such as the 24 solar terms. With the development of modern science and technology, humanity's ability to transform and use nature has increased, and facility agriculture and greenhouse vegetables and fruits mean we are no longer strictly bound by the solar terms. The role of the 24 solar terms in guiding farming has weakened somewhat. But no matter how rapidly society changes, humanity's attachment to the land and to agriculture will not change, and the fundamental position of agriculture will not change. The 24 solar terms are still the basis for many growers in agricultural production and in arranging rural life; the 24 solar terms have entered primary school curricula, becoming a time coordinate for cultivating children's understanding of all things in nature; the 24 solar terms still have cultural significance and social functions in many aspects of contemporary Chinese life.
The farming civilization wisdom and concepts contained in the 24 solar terms not only have important guiding significance for developing future ecological, organic and circular modern agriculture, but also offer much inspiration for the harmonious and healthy development of society as a whole. However, under the hidden worry of "those born in the 1970s are unwilling to farm, those born in the 1980s do not know how to farm, those born in the 1990s do not even mention farming, so who will farm the countryside in the future?", some farming culture attached to agricultural production is dying out. The inheritance of farming culture such as the 24 solar terms has a long way to go. Therefore, there is an urgent need to popularize among young people, especially rural young people (including young migrant workers), the relationship between the 24 solar terms and agricultural production and life. A good development environment should be created so that young farmers love agriculture and rural areas and become the inheritors, users and beneficiaries of the 24 solar terms.
The wisdom and creativity of the sages inspire contemporary workers in agriculture, rural areas and farmers to strive forward on the basis of inheriting and protecting traditional farming civilization and to create new glory and dreams for agriculture, rural areas and farmers. At present, modern agriculture and the construction of ecologically beautiful villages have created opportunities and broad space for the gestation and development of a new farming civilization. It is hoped that Chinese agriculture will make new and greater contributions to the world's farming culture.