All Solar Terms

The twenty-four solar terms divide the Chinese solar year into equal fifteen-degree arcs of the Sun's path along the ecliptic, marking the seasons for agriculture. Their names describe what the period is like (Rain Water, Insects Awaken, Grain Rain, Great Heat, Frost Descends), and together they form a farming calendar of great practical use, since they follow the Sun and so stay in step with the seasons.

The solar terms run alongside the lunar months of the Chinese calendar, giving it its lunisolar character: the months follow the Moon, but the solar terms keep the year tied to the Sun and the agricultural cycle.

The solar terms schedule planting, harvest and seasonal food and health practices across the Chinese cultural world, and several, the solstices and equinoxes among them, anchor festivals and observances. In Chinese medicine and in feng shui the terms mark the turning of seasonal energies. They were inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2016.

The atlas gives each term its point in the solar year, its seasonal meaning, and its associated customs. The solar terms belong with the Chinese calendrical and cosmological material under Eastern Systems.