Today marks the arrival of the presumed End of the World according to the Mayan Calendar, 21 December 2012, yet nothing extraordinary happened. It is proven that even though a western genius uses YiJing and map around the crucial event of the world having it ends at today, it is wrong from the very beginning as Chinese civilization does not begin in the Qing Dynasty.
Yet, today is an extraordinary day for the Chinese. It marks the arrival of Winter Solstice. A time in a year where the Yin Qi is of the maximum giving way to the birth of Yang Qi. An interesting write up is found in Annie’s Blog. In short, the dawn of Yang Qi where all lives hidden in hibernations are gathering momentum to grow once the Arrival of Spring kicks in.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are longer, of which living in cold icy area is full of challenges. Nothing can grow outside, farmers resort to consume the leftover dried meats, grains and drinking ginger soups to keep the body warm. So, there was a saying, if you can live through winter, you are already one year older. Thus such simple gesture of coming together as a family reunion marks the arrival of Winter Solstice greater than the New Year. This is typical Chinese mannerism foreign to other culture. So, the Chinese nuances differ significantly between Year and Age.
On the note of the calendric, before the unification of China by the Qin Emperor, various segments of China practices different New Year. So to speak, there are two kinds of Calendar. One measuring the Sui, Age, whiles the other the Nian, Year. The former measures a year close to a tropical year while the latter measures a year between 12 to 13 months.
As for metaphysics, the arrival of GuiSi year will always be the same with the arrival of spring. Any other claims whatsoever are just novelty and usually displayed by half-cooked masters. While saying this, if one practices SanYuan QiMen and the sort, Winter Solstice which comes every 21 or 22 December will be an important marker both as Yang Dun or predisposition.
If ever you ever see masters reading the annual forecast using Winter Solstice BaZi as their natal chart, something must really be wrong somewhere. Similarly so, reading a QiMen or a ZiBai JiuGong chart using a LiChun date for annual forecast will inevitably cast doubt.
Whichever way, Yifengshui would take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy DongZhi Day!
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