MUZI MUZIChinese Matrix

Clear and Bright

All things now are clean and bright

Introduction

Clear skies and spring sowing: both a solar term and a festival

Clear and Bright is the fifth solar term, beginning when the sun reaches 15° of ecliptic longitude, around 4–6 April, when the air is fresh and plants are clean and green. Its three pentads are paulownia trees blooming, field mice turning into quails, and rainbows first appearing. The weeks around it are a key time for spring sowing ('around Qingming, plant melons and beans') and for planting trees. It is the only solar term that is also a festival, whose main customs are sweeping ancestral graves and spring outings.

Timeline

Western Han to present
139 BCE · OriginThe Western Han Huainanzi (Tianwen xun, c. 139 BCE) sets out the twenty-four terms by the pointing of the Dipper's handle, recording 'fifteen days on, it points to yi: the clear-and-bright wind arrives', the earliest systematic attestation of Clear and Bright.104 BCE · EvolutionWith the Taichu calendar of 104 BCE under Emperor Wu of Han, the twenty-four solar terms entered the official calendar, and Clear and Bright became a fixed term in it.732 · EvolutionIn 732 Emperor Xuanzong of Tang decreed grave visits at the Cold Food Festival; the Cold Food customs of no fire and tomb sweeping gradually merged into Qingming, which grew from a solar term into a festival.2006 · ImpactIn 2006 the Qingming Festival (X-2) was inscribed on the first national list of intangible cultural heritage.
  1. 139 BCEOriginThe Western Han Huainanzi (Tianwen xun, c. 139 BCE) sets out the twenty-four terms by the pointing of the Dipper's handle, recording 'fifteen days on, it points to yi: the clear-and-bright wind arrives', the earliest systematic attestation of Clear and Bright.
  2. 104 BCEEvolutionWith the Taichu calendar of 104 BCE under Emperor Wu of Han, the twenty-four solar terms entered the official calendar, and Clear and Bright became a fixed term in it.
  3. 732EvolutionIn 732 Emperor Xuanzong of Tang decreed grave visits at the Cold Food Festival; the Cold Food customs of no fire and tomb sweeping gradually merged into Qingming, which grew from a solar term into a festival.
  4. 2006ImpactIn 2006 the Qingming Festival (X-2) was inscribed on the first national list of intangible cultural heritage.

Heritage Listings

  1. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · X-68 Twenty-Four Solar Terms of the Lunar Calendar · nominated by the China Agricultural Museum · collective item
  2. 2006National List of Representative Items of Intangible Cultural Heritage1st batch · X-2 Qingming Festival · nominated by the Ministry of Culture
  3. 2016UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of HumanityThe Twenty-Four Solar Terms · knowledge in China of time and practices developed through observation of the sun's annual motion · collective inscription