The 72 pentads: an annotated reference
Three markers per term
The seventy-two hou (候), usually called pentads, give the solar-term year a finer-grained seasonal vocabulary. Each of the twenty-four terms has three successive markers. Winds change, insects stir, birds arrive, flowers open and water freezes. Alongside these recognizable events are historical ideas about transformation, ritual and the relationship between heaven and earth.
“Pentad” refers to the traditional five-day unit. It is an approximation when describing a complete seasonal year: seventy-two periods of exactly five days total only 360 days. Modern solar terms also have unequal durations. The markers below give their traditional sequence without assigning each one a fixed five-day Gregorian date range.
The text behind this table
The table follows the received Yue Ling Qi Shi Er Hou Ji Jie, “Collected Explanations of the Seventy-two Pentads of the Monthly Ordinances.” The work is traditionally attributed to the Yuan scholar Wu Cheng, but its authorship is uncertain. The eighteenth-century Siku Quanshu catalogue already questioned that attribution.
The text explains the markers through earlier writings, interpretations of plant and animal names, and ideas about seasonal change. Some identifications differ from those found in other versions of the tradition. The notes below address the differences that affect the English wording.
The complete sequence
Each row contains three successive markers, read from left to right. “Traditional lore” identifies a transformation story rather than a biological process. Unfamiliar plant and animal names are explained after the table.
| Solar term | First marker | Second marker | Third marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lichun — Beginning of Spring | East winds thaw the ice | Hibernating creatures begin to stir | Fish rise beneath the ice |
| Yushui — Rain Water | Otters lay out fish as offerings | Migrating geese fly north | Grasses and trees begin to sprout |
| Jingzhe — Awakening of Insects | Peach trees begin to blossom | Orioles sing | Hawks turn into jiu birds, often translated “doves” (traditional lore) |
| Chunfen — Spring Equinox | Swallows arrive | Thunder begins to sound | Lightning begins |
| Qingming | Tong trees begin to blossom | Field mice turn into quails (traditional lore) | Rainbows begin to appear |
| Guyu — Grain Rain | Duckweed begins to grow | Calling jiu birds beat their wings | Hoopoes settle in mulberry trees |
| Lixia — Beginning of Summer | Mole crickets call | Earthworms emerge | Wanggua gourds begin to grow |
| Xiaoman — Grain Buds | Bitter herbs flourish | Soft grasses wither | Wheat reaches harvest time |
| Mangzhong — Grain in Ear | Praying mantises hatch | Shrikes begin to call | Fanshe falls silent |
| Xiazhi — Summer Solstice | Lu deer shed their antlers | Cicadas begin to sing | Banxia begins to grow |
| Xiaoshu — Minor Heat | Warm winds arrive | Crickets shelter in the walls of their burrows | Young hawks begin to hunt |
| Dashu — Major Heat | Decaying grass becomes fireflies (traditional lore) | Damp earth brings humid heat | Heavy rains arrive in season |
| Liqiu — Beginning of Autumn | Cool winds arrive | White dew settles | Autumn cicadas sing |
| Chushu — End of Heat | Hawks lay out birds as offerings | Heaven and earth begin to grow austere | Grain ripens for harvest |
| Bailu — White Dew | Wild geese arrive | Swallows depart | Flocks of birds store food |
| Qiufen — Autumn Equinox | Thunder begins to fall silent | Hibernating creatures narrow their burrow entrances | Waters begin to dry up |
| Hanlu — Cold Dew | Later flocks of wild geese arrive | Sparrows enter the sea and become clams (traditional lore) | Chrysanthemums bear yellow flowers |
| Shuangjiang — Frost's Descent | Dholes lay out prey as offerings | Leaves turn yellow and fall | Hibernating creatures all bow their heads and become inactive |
| Lidong — Beginning of Winter | Water begins to freeze | The ground begins to freeze | Pheasants enter the sea and become large clams (traditional lore) |
| Xiaoxue — Minor Snow | Rainbows disappear from view | Heaven's energy rises and earth's energy sinks | All closes up as winter sets in |
| Daxue — Major Snow | Hedan falls silent | Tigers begin to mate | Liting grass begins to sprout |
| Dongzhi — Winter Solstice | Earthworms coil up | Mi deer shed their antlers | Springs begin to stir |
| Xiaohan — Minor Cold | Geese turn northward | Magpies begin nesting | Pheasants begin calling |
| Dahan — Major Cold | Hens begin hatching chicks | Hunting birds grow fierce and swift | Ice thickens deep in the waters and marshes |
Notes on wording and identification
Animals making offerings. The verb ji (祭), “to offer sacrifice,” gives a ritual interpretation to the prey arranged by otters, hawks and dholes. It applies human ideas of gratitude and proper conduct to animal behaviour. The offering imagery is part of the traditional explanation of the markers.
The birds called jiu. The phrase “hawks turn into doves” is a common translation, but this commentary identifies jiu (鸠) as bugu, a cuckoo-type bird. The same name appears again at Guyu, where the movement is explained as flapping or beating the wings. Keeping the shared name makes that connection visible without choosing one modern bird identity for both passages.
Plant names. The tree name tong (桐) covers several trees in the commentary. Its Qingming entry selects baitong, commonly rendered as white paulownia. Wanggua (王瓜), the “bitter herbs” called kucai (苦菜), and liting (荔挺) also belong to historical naming systems that do not always map neatly onto a single modern species. Banxia (半夏) is the plant name commonly rendered as Pinellia. The table retains the broader or traditional name where a precise identification would be uncertain.
Other animal names. The Lixia marker louguo (蝼蝈) is interpreted here as a mole cricket. Earlier commentators also proposed a frog, an interpretation this text rejects. At Mangzhong, fanshe (反舌), literally “reversed tongue,” has been interpreted as a mimicking bird or an amphibian. The identity of Daxue's hedan (鹖鴠) is also disputed, with differing descriptions of a winter bird. These disagreements are why the table does not give every marker a modern species name.
A harvest called autumn. Xiaoman's mai qiu zhi (麦秋至) contains the words “wheat” and “autumn.” Here autumn means the crop's maturity or harvest. The marker belongs to the summer sequence, when wheat reaches its own harvest season.
Two deer terms. The summer marker names lu (鹿), while the winter marker names mi (麋). The text distinguishes these categories, though their identification has been debated. The two entries should not be read as saying that the same deer shed their antlers twice a year.
Closing the burrows. At Qiufen, the creatures add material to narrow their burrow entrances. Complete sealing is associated with more severe cold later on. “Narrow” preserves this distinction, which disappears in the shorter translation “seal their burrows.”
Heaven and earth. The “energy” in the Xiaoxue marker is qi, a vital or configuring influence in the text's cosmology. The separation of heaven's and earth's qi explains winter as a closing or withdrawal. This is cosmological language, distinct from a modern account of atmospheric circulation.
Observation and lore
The pentads arrange the year as a succession of meaningful changes. Stirring creatures and thawing water give way, much later, to retreating creatures and deepening ice. Some images recur in altered form. Geese travel north in the spring sequence and arrive from the north in autumn. Different kinds of cicada belong to summer and autumn, while antler shedding is assigned to different deer categories.
The transformation stories give this cycle another meaning: as the balance of the seasons changes, one form of life is imagined becoming another. Accounts of animals making offerings also connect the seasonal order with human ritual and conduct. Observation, inherited explanations and moral imagery sit together in the sequence.
Its geography remains important. Many of the named plants and animals belong to a northern Chinese setting, and historical readers elsewhere sometimes struggled to identify them. Flowering, migration and dormancy follow different schedules in different climates. The pentads preserve a detailed seasonal vocabulary whose local relevance depends on the landscape in which it is read.