Clear and Bright (Qingming) 清明
The solar term
The weather is warm, plants are flourishing, and the world looks clear and bright, hence the name. Qingming is also the festival for tending ancestral graves; the customs of the older Cold Food Festival were later folded into it.
| Year | Clear and Bright |
|---|---|
| 2026 | April 5 |
| 2027 | April 5 |
| 2028 | April 4 |
| 2029 | April 4 |
| 2030 | April 5 |
Dates are for China time (UTC+8); in other time zones the term may fall on a different day.
The three pentads
Each solar term lasts about fifteen days and is divided into three pentads of five days, each named after a sign in nature. In 2027:
Paulownias blossom 桐始華from April 5
Paulownia trees come into flower, the signature blossom of the season.
Field mice turn into quails 田鼠化為鴽from April 10
Field mice retreat into their holes just as quail-like birds appear, and the ancients took it that the mice had become the birds. It is an old belief, not a real transformation.
Rainbows first appear 虹始見from April 15
Rainbows begin to appear after rain.
Hexagrams
In the table of the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar (recorded in the New Book of Tang), the three pentads of Clear and Bright belong to three hexagrams:
- first pentad16 Yu (Enthusiasm)Marquis
- second pentad6 Song (Conflict)Grandee
- third pentad18 Gu (Repairing Decay)Minister
Separately, the twenty-four lines of Kan, Zhen, Li and Dui govern the twenty-four solar terms in turn; Clear and Bright belongs to Zhen, six in the second place.
The hexagram calendar marks the season. It says nothing about fortune and has no bearing on a hexagram you cast. See sources and method.