Category
Solar Terms
24 entries. Click any to see everything it connects to.
The twenty-four solar terms divide the Chinese solar year into equal fifteen-degree arcs of the Sun's path, marking the seasons for agriculture. Their names describe what the period is like (Rain Water, Insects Awaken, Grain Rain, Great Heat), and they remain in use across East Asia. They were inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2016.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 24
- What Defines This Grouping
- Twenty-four equal fifteen-degree arcs of the Sun's ecliptic longitude, which keep the lunisolar Chinese calendar in step with the agricultural year. 1
- Size of the Traditional Set
- 24 solar terms 1
Status
- Status Today
- Living practice: inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. 2
Attestation
- Era of Attestation
- The complete list of twenty-four is in place in Han-period literature, by the second century BCE. 1
Learn More
The Twenty-Four Divisions of the Year
The twenty-four solar terms divide the Chinese solar year into equal fifteen-degree arcs of the Sun's path along the ecliptic, marking the seasons for agriculture. Their names describe what the period is like (Rain Water, Insects Awaken, Grain Rain, Great Heat, Frost Descends), and together they form a farming calendar of great practical use, since they follow the Sun and so stay in step with the seasons.
The solar terms run alongside the lunar months of the Chinese calendar, giving it its lunisolar character: the months follow the Moon, but the solar terms keep the year tied to the Sun and the agricultural cycle.
Season and Practice
The solar terms schedule planting, harvest and seasonal food and health practices across the Chinese cultural world, and several, the solstices and equinoxes among them, anchor festivals and observances. In Chinese medicine and in feng shui the terms mark the turning of seasonal energies. They were inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2016.
The atlas gives each term its point in the solar year, its seasonal meaning, and its associated customs. The solar terms belong with the Chinese calendrical and cosmological material under Eastern Systems.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.