Spring and autumn She observances

Honouring the earth that sustains a community

She (社) observances honour the earth on which a community’s livelihood depends. She can denote the earth deity, the altar where offerings are made and the community gathered around that worship. The spring and autumn occasions give the relationship a seasonal rhythm: spring brings petitions for a productive growing season, while autumn brings thanks for its yield.

Prayers for suitable rain, healthy crops and protection from calamity made the spring ceremony a preparation for the work ahead. Autumn offerings acknowledged the harvest and the land’s continued support. These purposes belonged to the experience of farming, although the timing of particular crops and the forms of worship differed among communities.

The offering place could be an altar, a local shrine or a space associated with a tree. The gathering joined religious duty to the social life of neighbours. People contributed food or other resources, took part in worship and ate together afterwards. Honouring the land also affirmed the relationships among those who lived and worked on it.

From earth altars to village festivals

Worship of soil and grain held an important place in early Chinese state ritual. Rulers’ altars expressed responsibility for the land and its people. Local She observances worked on a smaller scale, bringing neighbouring households together around their own offering place. Court ceremony and village festivity shared an agricultural concern without having identical rituals or organisation.

By the sixth century, descriptions of She gatherings show neighbours making offerings beneath a tree and then sharing the sacrificial food. In the Tang period, spring and autumn She were important village occasions, with worship, feasting and entertainment. Music, drums and, in later traditions, theatre could address the deity while also drawing people together as an audience.

The dates used for these observances changed across periods and localities. The fifth-Wu (戊) rule used by many almanacs is one way of locating them in the seasonal year. It should not be projected backwards as the unvarying rule for every historical She ceremony.

Sharing the offering and the meal

Communal eating is central to She observance. Food first presented in worship can be divided among participants, so receiving a share links the household to the larger gathering. Grain, wine and meat appear in historical accounts, with the scale of the feast depending on what the community provides. The meal makes the benefits sought in the ritual tangible through food distributed and eaten together.

Autumn celebrations could also extend through visits and gifts. Song-period descriptions include the exchange of cakes and wine, special meals and gatherings involving relatives and neighbours. Thanksgiving was expressed through hospitality as well as through offerings at the altar.

Shefan, “She rice,” gives this shared food a local form in parts of western Hunan. Tujia and Miao households prepare rice with spring herbs, cured pork and other ingredients, and exchange portions with neighbours.

The Atlas’s fifth-Wu date rule

The Atlas uses an inclusive count: the first Wu day on or after the solar term’s calendar date is occurrence one. The fifth occurrence is the She day.

Wu here is the fifth heavenly stem. It is different from the seventh earthly branch, associated with the Horse, which is also written wu when tone marks are omitted. The daily stem repeats every ten days; Wu does not name a weekday.

With D as the first qualifying Wu day, the complete count is:

A Wu day containing the solar term is included. Thus February 4, 2024 gives Spring She on March 15, and August 7, 2025 gives Autumn She on September 16. Both starting dates were Wu days containing the relevant term. Counting strictly after a term-day Wu would instead produce a date ten days later. The inclusive convention defines the Atlas calculation; a local ritual calendar may use another arrangement.