When the smoky wind of midsummer brushes over the waves of golden wheat, and when the rain moistened the eaves of the house when the plums were green, we ushered in the most laborious and poetic of the twenty-four solar terms - the Mang Seed. Between a harvest and a kind of harvest, it hides the precise pulse of Chinese farming civilization on the seasons, and also plays the busiest prelude to the harvest of the earth. Let's listen to the “Mang Seed” in the eyes of international students!

Observations-Millennium Customs

1.Cooking Plums in Summer

"At this time, plums are ripe in the south of the Yangtze River, and the ancients used to cook plums with salt and sugar to reduce the summer heat and promote the production of body fluid. A cup of plum wine is not only a seasonal specialty, but also implies the philosophy of “harmonizing yin and yang”.

2. Farewell to the God of Flowers

In the second month of the lunar calendar, we welcome the God of Flowers, and in the fifth month of the lunar calendar, we send off the God of Flowers. In Dream of the Red Chamber, it is written: “The girls made palanquins and horses out of flower petals and willow branches, or folded flags out of damask and brocade and tied them to the tops of the flowering branches and trees”, so as to give thanks for the gifts of nature with colorful ceremonies.

3. Anmiao Prayer for Abundance

The ancient rituals of Anmiao worship have been inherited in the southern Anhui region: when the new wheat is harvested, offerings are made by kneading the grains and six animals with noodles and steaming them in order to worship the God of the land. Green seedling flags are inserted all over the ridge to pray for “safe seedlings and abundant grain”.

4. Drawing Spring Water to Cook Tea

The Song Dynasty, “the time of the year,” recorded: "Mangsui day to take the plum rain water to cook tea, very fresh and clean. Ancient people believed that the plum rain water has the effect of purging dust and removing poison, and stored it to cook tea, in order to meet the time of the day.

Wisdom of the Seasons

1. Busy but not at a loss: The sense of urgency of “spring competes for days, summer competes for hours” teaches people to respect the order of the seasons.

2. Sowing virtue and harvesting blessings: The simple truth of “only when one plows can one reap” is a universal truth through the ages.

3. Harmonize yin and yang: Boiling plums to cool down the summer heat and taking a nap to nourish the mind show the way of correspondence between heaven and man.

From the chanting of “rice is harvested in October” in the Book of Songs to the roar of today's drone harvesting, the spirit of the Mang Seed has remained unchanged - it is the deep love for the land, the reverence for the seasons and the revelation of the orderly life of all things.