【传统节日】|清明 春日如许，我在想你……

清明一候 桐始华

The First Symbol of Qingming: The First Flower of the Tung

  将“桐始华”作为清明初候，可见古人观察自然之细致。和李花、桃花、梨花、杏花率先争春不同，桐花这会儿才开始爬上高高的树梢。此时的天地，清澈明朗，新绿葱葱，娇蕊争芳，入眼皆是春和景明。“万物皆洁齐而清明，盖时当气清景明，万物皆显，因此得名。”清明之谓，委实精辟！

  The first symbol of Qingming is “the first flower of the Tung”, which shows that the ancients were very meticulous in observing nature. Unlike plum blossoms, peach blossoms, pear blossoms, and apricot blossoms, which are the first to compete for spring, tung blossoms are only now beginning to climb to the tops of the trees. At this time, the sky and the earth are clear and bright, with new greenery and delicate stamens competing for fragrance, and spring and scenery are bright as far as the eye can see. “All things are clean and clear, and the name comes from the fact that when the air is clear and the landscape is bright, everything is visible.” The name “Qingming” is really incisive!

清明二候 田鼠化为鴽

The second sign of the Qingming season: the quail-like vole.

  中国古代最早的词典《尔雅》对田鼠的释义很是生动：“鼫（shí）鼠，形大如鼠，头似兔，尾有毛，青黄色，好在田中食粟豆。”那鴽（rú）是什么呢？古书是这么说的：“鹑也，似鸽而小。”也就是一种鹌鹑类的小鸟。古人相信，田鼠为至阴之物，鸟为至阳之物，喜阴的田鼠因为烈阳之气渐盛而躲回洞穴，小小的鹑鸟则因为阴气已经潜藏，终于可以在蓝天下自由自在地活动，尽情地在花间鸣唱了。

  The earliest dictionary in ancient China, Er Ya, has a vivid explanation of the vole: “The marmot (shí) is a rat with a large shape, a head like a rabbit, and a hairy, greenish-yellow tail, which is good for eating corn and beans in the field.” What is a quail? The ancient book says: “Quail is also like pigeons but small.” It is also a small quail-like bird. The ancients believed that the vole is the most yin thing and the bird is the most yang thing, the yin-loving vole hides back in its burrow because of the growing yang energy, and the small quail bird, because of the yin energy that has been hidden, can finally move freely under the blue sky and sing among the flowers to its heart's content.

清明三候 虹始见

The three signs of Ching-ming, the rainbow begins to appear.

　　风雨之后见彩虹，《月令七十二候集解》曰“日照雨滴则虹生焉”，这是多美的景象！此时的天地万物，幸福地浸润在气温不断上升所带来的阳光、雨水和春风之中。闭上眼，仿佛能听到万物生长的声音：田间的冬小麦、山野里的竹笋开始拔节；牛、羊、马快活地抖着身子；孩子们欢快地嬉戏、跳跃，笑声飘荡在空气里，身体像在抽条，噌噌噌地长高……最能代表春天的花朵，无不留恋这一年一度亮相的机会，尽情展现着靓丽的容颜，不肯离去。

　The rainbow is seen after the storm, and the Collected Explanations of the Seventy-two Waiting Periods of the Moon Order says, “When the sun shines and the rain falls, the rainbow is born”, which is such a beautiful sight! At this time, all things in heaven and earth are happily immersed in the sunshine, rain and spring breeze brought about by the rising temperature. Close your eyes, as if you can hear the sound of everything growing: winter wheat in the fields, bamboo shoots in the mountains began to pull; cattle, sheep, horses shaking their bodies quickly; children play happily, jumping, laughter floating in the air, the body like in the drawbar, miso grow taller ...... most representative of the spring flowers, all of them stay in love with the annual appearance of the The most representative of the spring flowers, all of them stay in this annual appearance of the opportunity to show the beautiful face, refused to leave.