Tell a ghost story: The hottest “dog days” of the year only started today, and there are 40 days this year…
Wait a minute… it’s too hot to start counting volts? When will the hot dog days end?
Several volts is a custom in the traditional Chinese calendar to indicate the hottest period in summer. As the saying goes: “Cold in Sanjiu, hot in Sanfu.” Futian is divided into early Futian, middle Futian and last Futian, lasting a total of 30 or 40 days. Unfortunately, there are 40 days this year.
Not only is the number of days uncertain, but the date when the volts begins varies from year to year. For example, last year it started counting volts on July 11, and this year it started on July 16.
Actually, the starting date of several volts does not start with a fixed date in the Gregorian or lunar calendar, but is calculated by the Dry and Branch Calendar Method. However, to accurately count Futian, you also need to understand the summer solstice of the lunar calendar and the order of the cadres and branches.
The Law of the Zodiac and Earthly Branches
The Summer Solstice is the tenth solar term in the twenty-four solar terms of the lunar calendar. We know that the lunar calendar is a kind of “yin-yang calendar“, and the twenty-four solar terms is the “solar calendar” part of it – it is determined by dividing the time of the sun’s movement into 24 equal parts. , so the time point of the solar terms is relatively fixed on the Gregorian calendar.
For example, the summer solstice occurs between June 21st and 22nd of the Gregorian calendar every year. This is the day when the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Cancer, making it the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.
Shortly after the summer solstice, it is the dog days. As the saying goes: “On the summer solstice, the three Gengs will be counted as volts.” The “Geng” in it refers to the seventh word in the Heavenly Stem. This sentence means that the third Geng day after the summer solstice is the first day of the first volt.
And when this day comes, there will be no rules. You can only check the dates of the stems and branches on the old yellow calendar.
The method of counting the days of stems and branches is a counting method in the calendar that has been used in ancient my country, that is, ten days of dryness (A, B, C, D, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) and Twelve Earthly Branches (Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai) are combined with each other to represent the date.
We count the celestial stem and the terrestrial branch backward at the same time. After 6 rounds of the celestial stem, the terrestrial branch has exactly 5 rounds, so there are 60 kinds of combinations (yes, 10 and 12). Least Common Multiple). This is what people often call “Sixty Jiazi“.
The notation of year, month and day can be used in this way. For example, this year’s New Year’s Day can be expressed as “Xin Chou Year Gengzi Month Jia Yin Day”.
Nowadays, we are accustomed to using the Gregorian calendar, and the method of keeping track of branches and branches gradually fades out of people’s lives. It can only be recalled in some historical events, and it can be found on common calendars. I am afraid that only the year represented by the stem and branch (because it is often used when determining our zodiac).
However, it is more convenient now that many calendar software on the Internet can check the order of dates. For example like this:
San Fu has 40 days this year!
With this knowledge, let’s count the third Geng Day after the summer solstice this year!
Opening the calendar, we see this year’s summer solstice on June 21st. The “three geng days after the summer solstice” are:
June 26 Gengxu Day
July 6 Geng Shen Day
July 16, Geng Noon Day—this is the third Geng Day.
So July 16 became the beginning of this year.
The duration of the first wave is 10 days, so this year’s first wave is from July 16th to July 25th.
The next step is to determine the time of Mofu – The first Geng day after the beginning of autumn is the beginning of Mofu. Take this year as an example, the beginning of autumn is August 7th, and the first Geng day is found on August 15th, which is the first day of Mofu. Mofu lasts for 10 days and ends on August 24.
The time between the first and last volts is medium volts. According to the difference in the morning and evening of Geng Sun, the time left for Zhongfu must be 10 days or 20 days, and it will not be any other value. Therefore, there is a difference between 30 days and 40 days in the duration of the whole three-volt period.
We often complain that the dog days are too hot, and we hope that the dog days will be less or pass quickly. However, according to statistics, there are even more cases of 40 days in Futian, accounting for 71.37%, while the cases with 30 days only account for 28.63%.
For example, starting in 2015, for 10 consecutive years, Futian has been 40 days, which is really “unfulfilled.”
It’s not hot or not, it depends on the forecast
But think about it, is the weather unbearably hot, and will it be affected because the “Geng Day” comes too late or early? of course not.
Why use the geng day to specify the time and length of the Futian? According to some sources, in the Qin and Han dynasties, the “five elements mutually generate and restrain each other” prevailed, and they believed that the hottest summer days belonged to fire, while geng belonged to metal, and fire suppressed gold, so on geng day, gold must be hidden.
It seems that traditions such as counting volts and counting nine are simple laws summed up by the ancients based on long-term experience. They are related to the actual climate to a certain extent and can help to a certain extent. We dress and work, and now it has become a part of traditional culture.
As for whether it has to be “San Geng after the summer solstice” to be hot, and “Wu day” or “Ji day” can’t be hot? Of course that’s impossible. Moreover, China is so vast, coupled with the impact of climate change fluctuations over the millennium, the “error” has already exceeded the calculation rules of dog days.
If you want to know the exact weather, it is better to look at the weather forecast.
By the way, let’s add a cold knowledge – as the saying goes “cold in three nines”, do “three nines” and “three volts” mean the same? Actually, it’s a bit of a play on words.
The rule for counting nine is simple: starting from the winter solstice in the lunar calendar, count nine every nine days, for a total of nine, nine and eighty-one days. The third ninth day is called “three nines”. Therefore, the three volts in summer are “three volts“, and the three nines in winter are “third nine“. Cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers are different.
Why add this cold knowledge? It’s not because it’s been too hot these two days, I want to cool down everyone, am I easy QAQ…
Hot Dogs | EasyNight
By EasyNight
Edit: Steed
One AI
Are dog days hot? I can’t feel it with the air conditioner on…
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