The six solar terms of summer

Traditional summer

The summer sequence begins with Lixia and continues through Dashu, ending when Liqiu opens autumn. Its six names bring together growing and ripening crops, the turning of daylight at the solstice, and increasing heat. The season moves from vigorous growth in early May towards the humid heat of July.

Traditional summer begins earlier than meteorological summer, which commonly groups June, July and August together in the Northern Hemisphere. Those fixed three-month blocks are useful for comparing climate records. The solar-term season instead begins with Lixia in early May and places the June solstice within summer.

The six summer terms

Each row gives the beginning of a term in 2026.

Beginning of Summer (Lixia)

Lixia opens the traditional summer, with living things growing larger and more vigorous. Its seasonal markers turn attention towards small creatures and plants: calling mole crickets, emerging earthworms and growing gourds. These images place the beginning of summer in an active landscape, before the strongest heat terms arrive later in the sequence.

Grain Buds (Xiaoman)

Xiaoman means a small or partial fullness. The agricultural image behind “Grain Buds” is grain filling before complete maturity. Wheat kernels in northern China become fuller as the crop approaches harvest.

In southern interpretations, fullness also describes increasing rainfall and rising rivers. These two meanings connect the same term with different farming environments: developing grain in one region and the arrival of plentiful water in another.

Grain in Ear (Mangzhong)

The mang in Mangzhong refers to the pointed awns of cereal plants. The traditional explanation connects the term with sowing awned grain crops. Wheat harvest also appears in the preceding Xiaoman period's seasonal markers. Together, the two terms describe early summer as a time of harvest and further sowing, with different crops reaching different stages.

Summer Solstice (Xiazhi)

Xiazhi is the June solstice, at solar longitude 90°. It marks the Sun's northernmost annual position relative to the celestial equator and the Northern Hemisphere's maximum-daylight part of the year. After the solstice, the Sun's position begins moving southward again. The traditional summer is already well under way when this turning point arrives.

Minor Heat (Xiaoshu)

Xiaoshu begins fifteen degrees of solar longitude after the solstice. Minor Heat opens a pair of names that put hot weather at the centre of the seasonal description. Its traditional first marker is the arrival of warm winds. The smaller adjective anticipates the stronger heat imagery of Dashu.

Major Heat (Dashu)

Dashu combines damp ground, humid heat and substantial seasonal rain in its traditional description. Heat and moisture are closely linked in this picture of high summer. Another marker says that decaying grass becomes fireflies, preserving an old transformation belief alongside the weather observations.

Seasonal heat lag

Longest daylight and greatest accumulated warmth need not coincide. After the June solstice, the surface can continue receiving more energy than it loses even as daylight shortens. Temperatures can therefore keep rising. The timing and strength of this seasonal lag vary with the local environment and weather, helping explain why the two heat terms come after Xiazhi.

The traditional sanfu, or three Fu periods, mark another interval within this hot season. Their dates combine Xiazhi and Liqiu with Geng days in the Ganzhi, or stem-and-branch, cycle. They form a separate thirty- or forty-day count that can continue after Liqiu begins the traditional autumn. The three Fu reference gives a complete worked calendar.