Frost Falls (Shuangjiang) 霜降
The solar term
The last term of autumn. The weather grows colder and the first frosts appear; in the north most plants have already turned yellow.
| Year | Frost Falls |
|---|---|
| 2026 | October 23 |
| 2027 | October 23 |
| 2028 | October 23 |
| 2029 | October 23 |
| 2030 | October 23 |
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 2026:
Jackals lay out their kill 豺乃祭獸from October 23
Jackals hunt in plenty and lay out their kill before eating, like the otters with their fish and the hawks with their birds.
Leaves yellow and fall 草木黃落from October 28
Leaves turn yellow and fall.
Insects go to ground 蟄蟲咸俯from November 2
Insects preparing to hibernate all lie still in their burrows.
Hexagrams
In the table of the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar (recorded in the New Book of Tang), the three pentads of Frost Falls belong to three hexagrams:
- first pentad47 Kun (Exhaustion)Duke
- second pentad23 Bo (Splitting Apart)Sovereign
- third pentad52 Gen (Stillness)Marquis
The second, Bo (Splitting Apart), is one of the twelve sovereign hexagrams (十二辟卦), which trace the waxing and waning of yin and yang through the year. It stands for the ninth month of the traditional calendar: five yin below one yang, yang nearly spent.
Separately, the twenty-four lines of Kan, Zhen, Li and Dui govern the twenty-four solar terms in turn; Frost Falls belongs to Dui, six in the third 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.