Celebrate the Chinese New Year together, bringing joy to millions of families. From the beginning of the Chinese New Year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to the passing of the Chinese New Year on the twenty third and twenty fourth day of the twelfth lunar month; From family reunion and New Year's Eve, to visiting relatives and neighbors on the first day of the first lunar month... New Year is a reunion and celebration festival for Chinese people to eliminate the old and embrace the new, and to look forward to the future. Another traditional Chinese New Year has arrived as scheduled. On the occasion of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, let us trace the historical roots and cultural connotations contained in the Chinese New Year together. At the beginning of understanding human affairs, there is nothing more desirable than the Chinese New Year, and nothing more frightening than the Chinese New Year. My young heart often struggles with contradictions, hoping that the Chinese New Year will come early because I can eat good food, wear new clothes, and earn a few New Year's money; I am also afraid of the arrival of the Chinese New Year. On New Year's Eve, I must stay alert and not doze off. I must try my best to restrain myself from closing my eyes to avoid being eaten by the New Year. Father, mother, and many adults say that the year is a fierce beast. This ferocious beast is as fierce as a jackal or wolf, with a mouth as big as a bloody basin. Every New Year's Eve, it quietly rushes into the village and swallows any child it sees sleeping. To dispel our fears, every household prepares a set of firecrackers wrapped in big red paper. Almost no child doesn't like to set off firecrackers. Just light one and it will explode in mid air with a loud bang; A string of dots illuminated the night with a crackling sound. My friends can't express their happiness, they just jump around happily. Why set off firecrackers? Scare and drive away fierce beasts. My father once said that there were no firecrackers a long time ago. Our ancestors chopped down a large pile of bamboo, lit a big fire, and it exploded with a crackling sound, scaring the Nian beasts and causing them to flee in panic. Only then could we celebrate the Chinese New Year safely. During the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Shuo wrote poetry lines such as "Peach branches can ward off evil, firecrackers can startle one's sleep." During the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi's poem "The sound of firecrackers marks the end of the year," both of which indicate that Chinese people have long had the tradition of setting off firecrackers during the Chinese New Year. As I grow older, I suddenly realize that the year is time, the sunrise and sunset, and the alternation of day and night. Year does not mean 'eating people', but giving people life, helping them grow, and teaching them to cherish time. Thinking about the ancient saying 'if you don't work hard in your youth, the old will only feel sad', and the Tang poem 'advise you not to cherish your golden silk clothes, and advise you to cherish your youth', are they not all warnings to cherish time and not to waste it? The two hundred festival year comes first, and the four seasons of spring come first. Among all festivals, the Chinese New Year ranks first; Among the four seasons, spring comes first. In plain language, it expresses how much Chinese people value the Chinese New Year and spring. This place contains the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation spanning thousands of years, and even longer. To touch its origin, one must turn their gaze to the period of transition from hunting to agriculture. The period when our ancestors relied solely on hunting for food did not have any years, only the sun and moon rising and setting above their heads, that is, the sun and moon. The sun is the sun, rising and setting is a day; The moon is the moon, rising and setting is a night. Year, month, and day are common phrases used by Chinese people, but you may not know that their initial appearance marked the beginning of the Chinese calendar. In the calendar, the month is no longer simply the moon, but represents a year divided into 12 segments, with the month being one of them. The natural celestial phenomena of the sun and moon have been given a new mission by our ancestors to undertake the important task of dividing time order. As for the year, it is not a natural celestial phenomenon or geographical phenology, but a celestial cognition determined and divided by our ancestors through their own thinking. Some people call it humanistic celestial phenomena, also known as astronomy. The emergence of the year marks the beginning of a new era, indicating that the ancestors of China began to distance themselves from hunting and foraging, and entered the days of farming and eating. Don't describe this epoch-making leap in just a few lines, our ancestors went through a long exploration. From archaeological discoveries, it can be seen that rice cultivation already existed at the Zhejiang Shangshan Culture Site in the south, dating back approximately 11000 to 8500 years ago; In the Cishan site in northern Hebei, which dates back about 8000 years, there is already a large reserve of millet grains. It can be seen that our ancestors have long developed fruit picking into planting and feeding, initiating the agricultural civilization. However, for thousands of years, our ancestors relied solely on planting to fill their stomachs, and their means of livelihood have been hovering between hunting and farming. One important reason is that our ancestors did not understand celestial phenomena and could not plant according to the time of day. The planting time of our ancestors was either too early, as the newly unearthed seedlings would freeze to death and have no harvest if they were attacked by frost; Either it's too late, the fruit is still growing, the temperature drops sharply, the seeds are frozen and shriveled, and the harvest is thin. Farming has been in a low yield state for a long time. Undoubtedly, celestial phenomena are the bottleneck that restricts agriculture, planting, and ensuring adequate food and clothing. Fortunately, after thousands of years of exploration, our ancestors finally broke through this bottleneck. The symbol of breakthrough is the ancient calendar. However, the earliest appearance in the calendar is not in years, but in years. The "Book of Documents - Yao Dian" records: "The emperor said, 'Zi! Ru Xi Ji He. The period is three hundred, sixty, and six days, and the leap month is used to determine the four seasons to form the year.'" The year evolved into a year, like the flowing water of the Yellow River, with no less than ninety-nine bays. In the book "Er Ya · Shi Tian", it is recorded that "Xia is called Sui, Shang is called Si, Zhou is called Yue, Tang is called Yue Zai." During the Xia Yu period, it was called "Sui," while during the Yao and Shun periods, it was called "Zai." In the "Book of Documents · Yao Dian", there is a line from Emperor Yao: "I have been in power for seventy years." "Zhou is called Yue," and "Er Ya · Shi Tian" reminds us that Sui evolved into year in the Zhou Dynasty. In the Shang Dynasty before the Zhou Dynasty, it was called Si. Sacrifice is a form of worship, let's talk about it later. According to research, the character "year" appears in oracle bone inscriptions. The explanation of the character "Nian" in "Shuowen Jiezi" is: "Who is the grain?" Who means ripe, and the grain is ripe. The initial pictogram of the character "ripe" is like a person carrying a harvested grain on their back. This is somewhat like my teenage years, when my shoulders were still young. In summer and autumn, I couldn't afford to carry two bundles of rice, so I had to carry one bundle and follow the adults step by step. As a ideographic writing system mainly composed of phonetic characters, Chinese characters carry rich historical and cultural information. Without the need for sound, future generations can listen to the private whispers of their ancestors. The character 'year' is like this, and the character 'year' is also like this. Compared to the character 'year', the character 'year' is relatively complex. The term 'year' was originally referred to as' every year '. Some people say that "Sui" is the incarnation of Jupiter. Isn't there a record in the "Book of Documents - Yao Dian" that "the calendar is like the sun, moon, and stars"? Jupiter transformed into 'every year' and entered the calendar. There is also a saying that the original meaning of the character "shi" is to cut off, and its shape is like cutting off a person's two feet with a big axe. If cut off, it stops, symbolizing the separation of old time periods and the opening of a new sun and moon. No matter what the original meaning of the character "shi" is, it is telling future generations that in order to penetrate the vast celestial phenomena, ancestors are working tirelessly to explore suitable farming opportunities for planting. After exploring the timing, it was called "Qinruo Haotian" by later generations, and when it was promulgated and implemented, it was called "Respectful to the People Time". When reading the "Book of Documents - Yao Dian", I was somewhat confused as a fool. Why is it that "setting the four seasons to become one year old" can "allow for the completion of hundreds of works and the achievement of Xianxi"? Simply put, why was a calendar established so that as long as officials fulfill their duties and responsibilities, many things would prosper smoothly? It wasn't until the world's oldest observatory in the Taosi ruins was restored that I suddenly realized. Originally, it was the solar terms that directly guided the transformation of time into sowing opportunities. The solar terms have long been included in the "Book of Documents - Yao Dian". "To Yin Zhongchun", "to Zheng Midsummer", "to Yin Zhongqiu", "to Zheng Zhongdong" are not only the fax of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, but also the earliest appearance of "Er Zhi, Er Fen". Meteorologist Zhu Kezhen pointed out in his book "The Way of Heaven and Humanities" that the "two solstices and two equinoxes" are: summer solstice, winter solstice, spring equinox, and autumn equinox. The Taosi Observatory is a product of observing solar terms. The reason why I cite it as evidence is because the unearthed cultural relics at the site have been determined by carbon-14 dating, dating back to about 4300 years ago, corresponding to a historical period similar to the Emperor Yao period. This indicates that even though the records in the "Book of Documents - Yao Dian" were not written at that time, they were reconstructed by later generations based on the oral accounts of their predecessors. After the restoration of the ancient observatory carrying the solar terms, it stands tall on the Loess Plateau. Going to pay my respects, whenever the red sun rising from a distant mountain passes through the observation gap and illuminates the observation point, I can't help but shout, 'King Yao has come out!' This is a habit I developed in my childhood. It's not that I compared King Yao to the sun, it's that my hometown's elders and fellow villagers have praised the sun so much from generation to generation. Of course, the dialect in our mouths is not 'King Yao', but 'Yaowo'. In the dialect of Yaodu, the character "Wang" sounds like "wo" - Wangcun is pronounced as "wo Village", and Wangzhuang is pronounced as "wo Zhuang". The villagers compared King Yao to the sun, which is consistent with the praise given to Emperor Yao in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" for his benevolence like the sky, his knowledge like a god, his actions like the sun, and his gaze like clouds. Emperor Yao was revered because he appointed Xizhong, Xishu, Hezhong, and Heshu to go to Yanggu, Yugu, Jiaoxi, and Youdu to observe the changes of the "sun, moon, and stars", determine the calendar, determine the solar terms, and unlock the password to heaven. Especially in the formulation of solar terms, it can be regarded as a time landmark for agricultural sowing. I was born and raised in Yaodu, and the seasonal and agricultural proverbs have influenced my growth. Awakening the Insects and Not Plowing the Fields, Only Three to Five Days "is the spring news of the thawing of the earth; White dew grows in high mountains, cold dew grows in flat rivers "is the solar term for sowing wheat. However, my fellow villagers never talk about solar terms, they only talk about them with each other. Festivals, commands about solar terms. 'Respecting the people's time' is the command to issue agricultural seasons. Planting crops in a timely manner is necessary to ensure a good harvest and sufficient food and clothing. Solar terms are obviously an important driving force for the transition from "year" to "year". In calendars and solar terms, "year" is the beginning and has not yet been practiced; Year "is the crystallization of success after practice. In the year, it can be said that the Chinese ancestors achieved fruitful results by crossing from hunting to agriculture. The Chinese nation is a grateful nation, with abundant clothing, food, and a happy life during the Chinese New Year, and has not forgotten the time and solar terms that gave birth to the Chinese New Year. Up to now, Sui and Nian have almost equal status. If someone asks, how old are you? You have lived in this world for 60, 70, or 80 years, but when you answer, you do not mention the year, and still use the year of Emperor Yao's "Four Timed Age", which is 60, 70, or 80 years old. From ancient times to the present, I have been inseparable from the Chinese people, never giving up or leaving. Year after year, observe the New Year every year. Every year brings peace and good fortune, and every year brings blessings and happiness to the door. Confucius said, 'Great is it that Yao is a ruler!'! Majestic, only heaven is great, only Yao is great. Wandering aimlessly, the people have no reputation. ”Exploring the process of the Chinese nation and the emergence of agricultural civilization, I gradually turned the reverence for Confucius into my own reverence. I not only respect Emperor Yao, but also every ancestor who has made significant contributions to promoting Chinese civilization. According to the Book of Documents, the year that first appeared in the form of a year was formed during the reign of Emperor Yao. However, this was definitely not born out of nowhere, but rather a relay race of our ancestors observing celestial phenomena, continuously exerting their efforts and persevering from generation to generation, until it bloomed and bore fruit during the reign of Emperor Yao. Sima Qian wrote in "Records of the Grand Historian": "The Yellow Emperor appointed Xihe to occupy the sun, and Changyi to occupy the moon. Xihe should be the general term for the Xi and He clans, who observed the sun; Changyi, also known as Changxi, is responsible for observing the moon. The Shan Hai Jing · Da Huang Xi Jing simply deifies Xihe as the mother of the sun and Chang Xi as the mother of the moon. The ancient people had a fascinating imagination of Xihe: she lived with her ten sun sons on the Fusang tree in the east. Every day, a precious son takes off to illuminate the earth, and she drives them to the highest point in a dragon car. Every day, every day, without interruption, she was so diligent and responsible. It is likely that during the Huangdi period, dedicated personnel were already appointed to observe celestial phenomena, and Xihe and Changxi were such "executives"