清明
Qīng Míng · Pure Brightness
Each year lands around 4/5 in the Gregorian calendar (the exact date shifts slightly year to year).
Three Hou — five days each
- Tung trees begin to blossom
- Field mice transform into quails
- Rainbows first appear
The 'three hou' (三候) is the traditional five-day-each observation pattern within a single solar term — fifteen days in all.
What this term marks
Qing-Ming (Pure Brightness). Everything becomes clear, clean, bright. The most important ancestral-tomb day in the Chinese year — sweeping graves, paying respects, walking in spring fields.
Folklore & farming
'Qing-Ming time brings drizzling rain' — Du Mu's Tang couplet. Customs: tomb-sweeping, willow-branch insertion at doorways, spring walks, eating qing-tuan (sweet rice balls with mugwort).
What it means in a BaZi chart
Qing-Ming opens the Chen (Dragon) month — Earth begins to gather. Chen is the 'water reservoir' branch (水库) — Water stored within Earth — a key concept when reading any chart with Chen in it.
Guidance, not prophecy. For reflection, not decision.