Abstract:

How did the creators of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms understand the annual cyclical movement of the sun? How were the Twenty-Four Solar Terms named? The Twenty-Four Solar Terms were referred to as “the Twenty-Four Qi” (vital energy) in ancient times. The naming of the terms indicates not only the existence of a framework of eight terms, including two equinoxes, two solstices, and four beginnings, but also a symmetrical yin-yangstructure surrounding the summer and the winter solstices. More importantly, the names suggest the water series understood and imagined by the ancient, in which four seasons are connected with the transformation of the three states of water, while summer and winter are regarded as the pivot and the wetness and dryness of water as the representation. There is a structural resonance between the transformation of qi implied in this naming system and that described in “the Ultimate One Giving Birth to Water” (taiyi shengshui), which is based on the conceptions such as qi, yin-yang, and water as arche in Chinese philosophy. This conclusion reminds us that time is the most fundamental issue in ancient Chinese thoughts.

Key words: Twenty-Four Solar Terms, Eight Terms, yin-yang structure, the Ultimate One giving birth to water, philosophy of time