Spring Equinox (Chunfen) 春分
The solar term
On the spring equinox the sun stands over the equator and day and night are almost equal. The Chinese name means both the dividing of day and night and the midpoint of spring's ninety days. From here on, days in the northern hemisphere are longer than nights.
| Year | Spring Equinox |
|---|---|
| 2026 | March 20 |
| 2027 | March 21 |
| 2028 | March 20 |
| 2029 | March 20 |
| 2030 | March 20 |
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:
Swallows return 玄鳥至from March 21
Swallows return from the south.
Thunder finds its voice 雷乃發聲from March 26
Thunder is heard again. The ancients thought thunder came from rising yang pressing against yin.
Lightning begins 始電from March 31
Lightning begins to flash.
Hexagrams
In the table of the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar (recorded in the New Book of Tang), the three pentads of Spring Equinox belong to three hexagrams:
- first pentad40 Xie (Release)Duke
- second pentad34 Dazhuang (Great Strength)Sovereign
- third pentad16 Yu (Enthusiasm)Marquis
The second, Dazhuang (Great Strength), 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 second month of the traditional calendar: four yang lines below, yang grown strong.
Separately, the twenty-four lines of Kan, Zhen, Li and Dui govern the twenty-four solar terms in turn; Spring Equinox belongs to Zhen, nine at the beginning.
The hexagram calendar marks the season. It says nothing about fortune and has no bearing on a hexagram you cast. See sources and method.