Why does Chinese culture call history Spring and Autumn instead of Winter and Summer ?

According to common sense, cold is cold, hot is hot, and it is not necessary to call it "winter and summer". Some people say that this is because of the first sentence of "Spring and Autumn" "Spring King New Year". This "spring" is spring; "Wang" is ****, it is the Zhou Dynasty; "New Year" is the first month of the Zhou Dynasty's monthly order; To explain the reason why history is called "Spring and Autumn" is probably a bit reluctant.

The above is the first interpretation, which is not convincing either literally or conceptually, and the second one emerges. According to this statement, spring is the season of sowing and autumn is the season of harvesting. China has been an agricultural country since ancient times, and has experienced 4,600 spring sowing and autumn harvests.

Ancient historians believed that history is composed of a series of events, and each event has its cause and effect, and the cause of one event is often the result of another, so the cause of the event is equivalent to spring sowing, and the result of the event is equivalent to autumn harvest; Just as the seeds harvested in the current year are sown in the spring of the following year, the result of an event in the current year can also be the cause of an event in the following year. That's why we tend to call history "Spring and Autumn".

This is the second interpretation, which leads from the seasonal cycle of spring planting and autumn harvest, which leads to the fact that history is linked by a series of causal events; In comparison, this argument is much more convincing than the first one. However, this statement only expresses the meaning of "spring and autumn", but does not explain the reason why history is not called "winter and summer".

As a matter of fact, we all know that science was the earliest development of Chinese culture, and the first development of science was astronomy. Speaking of astronomy, China's astronomy was very developed as early as 3,000 years ago, which is inseparable from China's tradition of building a country based on agriculture from ancient times to the present. Since the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, people's livelihood methods are fishing and animal husbandry, gathering, hunting and farming, etc., in order to survive, people have long begun to pay attention to the study of astronomical laws such as seasons and seasons to arrange production and life.

It can be said that Chinese culture is derived from astronomy to a certain extent. We know that the climate is uneven throughout the year, with winters being too cold and summers being too hot. Speaking of day and night, the days are too short in winter and too long in summer; The opposite is true in the night.

In short, the length of day and night is uneven in winter and summer. Only in spring and February and autumn in August, the "vernal equinox" and "autumnal equinox" two seasons, in the latitude and longitude of the sun just to the middle of the ecliptic, when the day and night are of equal length, the climate is neither hot nor cold and mild, this is like a balanced scale, or an impartial standard. Therefore, Chinese historians believe that in an era, whether society and politics are good or bad should be measured and criticized on this balance like the spring and autumn equinoxes, so it is the reason that history is called "spring and autumn" instead of "winter and summer".

The Spring and Autumn Period here refers to the Spring and Autumn Period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, because according to legend, the Spring and Autumn Period compiled by Confucius is the first collection of chronicles and historical essays of the Chinese nation, so history is called the Spring and Autumn Period. Since the Han Dynasty respected Confucianism, Confucianism has always been literati orthodoxy, and the Spring and Autumn Period, as one of the six classics of Confucianism, has a status that can be imagined.

The historians of the Lu State recorded the major events reported by various countries at that time by year, quarter, month, and day, and recorded the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter in a yearConfucius compiled and revised the Spring and Autumn Period compiled by the historians of the Lu State and became one of the Confucian classics. The Spring and Autumn Period records a total of 242 years of events from the first year of Lu Yin (722 BC) to the fourteenth year of Lu Xianggong (481 BC).

Because the beginning and end of the historical facts recorded in it are roughly equivalent to an objective period of historical development, historians of all dynasties have taken the title of "Spring and Autumn" as the name of this historical period. For the sake of narrative convenience, the Spring and Autumn Period began in 770 BC (the first year of King Zhou Ping) and ended in 476 BC (the 44th year of King Jing of Zhou) on the eve of the Warring States Period, a total of 295 years.

It's because he writes in spring and autumn, and in winter and summer, he doesn't feel like he's in the mood to write because it's too hot or cold.

The spring equinox, the autumn equinox, and the length of day and night of the two solar terms are equal. Therefore, we talk about "Spring and Autumn are equal and Sun Lao", which is a scale. Ancient and modern figures, whether they have contributed to the national social bond, "Spring and Autumn" in this history is the theory of equality, so "Spring and Autumn" is the meaning of the theory of equality.

Nan Huaijin.

Confucius prefers the two seasons of spring and autumn, and he feels that winter and summer are relatively bleak situations, and he feels that this book is not very suitable.

Because spring and autumn are relatively close temperatures, this proves that the situation at that time is not so chaotic, and winter and summer represent chaos.

1. Politics: in ancient China.

Spring and autumn are the times when the princes hire the royal family, and they are also the time for the princely states.

The main time for the exchange of envoys, alliances and other activities, many important political activities take place in the spring and autumn seasons.

2. It is economic: in ancient times, China was an agrarian country, and the most important economic activities occurred in spring and autumn. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to use the season that best represents the political and economic activity of the time to represent the whole year.

Lu State. The historian recorded the major events reported by various countries at that time by year, quarter, month, and day, and recorded the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter in a year.

The reason for this is that people in the past were very simple, and they acted according to the climate, which was hot in summer and cold in winter, and there was a saying that they avoided heat and nested in winter, and the basic major events occurred in spring and autumn, and in ancient times, major events mostly occurred in spring and autumn. Spring is the season of sowing and sacrifice, while autumn is the season of harvest and war. As the old saying goes, "the plan of the year lies in the spring", and in the autumn, the various vassal states have food, and they begin to fight for territory, and the ancient soldiers have to wear thick armor, which is too hot in summer and cannot be worn in winter, so autumn is the most suitable, and at this time the grain and grass are in a constant supply, and you can also plunder the grain and grass of others through war.

Therefore, during these two seasons, the historians were also particularly busy, recording the major events of the sacrifices in the spring and the events of the war in the autumn (which were also the great deeds of the princes and kings).

1. Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC).

During the Spring and Autumn Period, it began with the eastward migration of King Ping. He got his name from Lu Shi's "Spring and Autumn". It is a period of change in the history of China with rapid social and economic changes, complex political situation, endless military struggles, and colorful academic culture, and a transitional period in which ancient Chinese civilization gradually transitioned into medieval civilization.

Confucius, the founder of Chinese Confucian culture, once compiled a historical book called "Spring and Autumn" to record the history of the Lu State at that time, and the time span recorded in this historical book is roughly equivalent to the Spring and Autumn Period that constitutes a historical stage, so later generations will call this historical stage the Spring and Autumn Period, which is basically the first half of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

The ancients paid attention to the golden mean, and the cold and hot in winter and summer were too extreme and inappropriate, so they named it Spring and Autumn.

Zhou claimed to be the successor of Xia, so Zhou was followed by Spring and Autumn. That is, summer is followed by spring and autumn.

This is related to the customs of the ancient Chinese. During the farming period, sowing in the spring and harvesting in the fall are the two most important seasons of the year. Therefore, the ancestors attached great importance to the spring and autumn seasons, and arranged major sacrificial activities.

Referring to history as Spring and Autumn was not the work of Confucius. At that time, each vassal state had its own chronicle, and the recording method was divided into four seasons in chronological order: spring, summer, autumn, and winter, all of which were called "spring and autumn". Such as:

Yanzi Spring and Autumn. Confucius sorted out and revised the original "Spring and Autumn" of the Lu Kingdom, which is still called "Spring and Autumn", and later became one of the Confucian classics.

Spring and Autumn is the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and "Winter and Summer" is what it is.

Because for the ancients. The titles of the books were not very important, so they did not prepare any titles, which were also given by their descendants based on what they had written.

According to the information shown in the oracle bone inscription and the ancient text "Shangshu", there were only two seasons in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the division of spring, summer, autumn and winter in the current year only began in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the theory of the four seasons just began to emerge.

It is called Spring and Autumn because of the historical book "Spring and Autumn" written by Confucius, as for why it is called Spring and Autumn, probably the climate in winter and summer is not very good, and it is not suitable to raise troops to fight, and important wars take place in spring and autumn. Throwing bricks and stones.

At that time, there were no history books in a strict sense, and such books in the Spring and Autumn Period may not have been named at that time, but they were later named by the students, and the ancients read Lile in the Spring and Autumn Period! It also has a big impact.

In ancient times, major events occurred in spring and autumn. Spring is the season of sowing and sacrifice, while autumn is the season of harvest and war. As the old saying goes, "The plan of the year lies in spring", and in autumn, when the vassal states have food, they begin to fight for territory.

The main reason is that at the beginning, they only had two seasons, that is, spring and autumn, so there will be no such thing as summer and winter, you can go to the history books to take a good look.

Because the origin of the Spring and Autumn Period is derived from the historical book "Spring and Autumn" of the Lu State, because Confucianism exalts it, the Spring and Autumn Period has become the spokesperson of that era, rather than the "Winter and Summer Warring States".

Spring and Autumn represented the meaning of one year in ancient times, so the historian used the word Spring and Autumn to compile the history book, and we called it the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period according to this.

Because most of the major events of the year occurred in spring and autumn, and it was also named after the book "Spring and Autumn".

There are four seasons in a year, spring, summer, autumn and winter, referred to as spring and autumn. In addition, spring is the season of sowing and autumn is the season of harvesting. They all need a large number of laborers, and they don't want to go to war, so they call it Spring and Autumn.

The Spring and Autumn Period in history was named after the classical book "Spring and Autumn". Moreover, "Spring and Autumn" has the meaning of "spring ploughing and autumn harvest", which is a symbol of hope, which is better than "summer and winter", and it is also better than "summer and winter".

In ancient times, a spring and autumn represented a year. Therefore, the Spring and Autumn Period should belong to the record of time, such as the Spring and Autumn Zuo Chuan. They all start with the spring and autumn period.

Because the word spring and autumn rhyme, spring and autumn means the beginning and end of the year, and we know very little about the era in history, and only know the beginning and end of history.

Confucius's state of Lu attaches great importance to the revision of history books, and the writing of "Spring and Autumn" is very distinctive, arranged in the order of year, month, and day, and the beginning of each season must mark the season from "spring" to "winter". Moreover, the history books of other countries have gradually been lost due to the washing of time, and only the "Spring and Autumn Period" has been handed down. There is also the importance of the four seasons in China's agricultural society, and the spring planting and autumn harvest in the north are the ancients' admiration for the four seasons.