What seasonal changes are revealed in July's "Flowing Fire" and September's "Appreciating" in The Book of Songs?
"Fire" refers to the "fire" star in the sky. This is a bright red star, located in Scorpio, which is one of the beautiful constellations in summer night. It is said that its name is "Kuibo". His brother's name is "Stone God". Although they are brothers, they often fight and get angry easily, which makes the family fidgety. Gao Xin, the stern father, ordered them to be separated so that they could never see each other again. Kui Bo moved to Shangqiu and Shi Shen moved to Daxia. Later they all became stars and went to heaven. "Kuibo" is "fire" and is also called Shangxing; "Stone God" is Canxing, the beautiful Orion in winter night. They are East and West, just opposite each other on the celestial sphere, and they will never see each other at the same time. Du Fu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, quoted this allusion in his poem "It is difficult for friends to meet each other like the stars in the morning and evening".
Fire is a famous and conspicuous star. The ancestors of the Yin Dynasty had long learned to observe its existence to determine the farming season, and also set up two official positions called "Huozheng" to take charge of this work. Although there was a crude calendar in the Yin Dynasty, the old tradition of determining the farming season according to the appearance of the "fire" star continued to be handed down. According to the theory of modern astronomy, during the rainy solar term about 4000 years ago, the "fire" star rose from the eastern horizon as soon as the sun set from the western horizon. When people see this phenomenon, they have to prepare for spring ploughing and sowing in order to strive for a good harvest this year. When the midsummer is over and the summer solar term is coming, the sun has just set in the west, and the "fire" star has crossed the southern sky and will soon flow to the west. Soon the weather will turn cold and winter clothes will be ready. In the "July" section of the Book of Songs, "July is a fire, and September is a gift".
According to the relationship between the position of the "fire" star at dusk and the season, a simple sequence table can be drawn. According to it, we can predict the change of seasons and the arrangement of farming, which is similar to a calendar.