【顺时而生】立春（Spring Begins）了！| 双语版24节气 24 Solar Terms

立春是二十四节气中的第一个节气，标志着春天的到来。今年立春自2月4日开始到2月19日结束。和立夏、立秋、立冬一样，立春也是反映季节更迭的节气。通常，从立春开始，天气开始回暖，人们逐渐可以嗅到早春的气息。

The Spring Begins, Lichun (立春) in Chinese, is the first solar term in the 24 solar terms, and marks the coming of spring. The date for Lichun begins this year on February 4th and ends in February 19th. Like the Summer Begins, the Autumn Begins and the Winter Begins, it is also a solar term reflecting the changing of seasons and is a transitional solar term. Generally, from the Spring Begins, the weather becomes warm again and people will gradually smell the scents of early spring.

作者：程璨

随着温度升高，光照时间延长，雨水也会增多。对于中国的大部分地区来说，立春只是春季到来的征兆，真正的春天还尚未来临。

As the temperature will be higher, the sunshine will be longer and the rain will be more. But for most parts of China, such phenomena is just a sign of spring, the true one has not yet to come.

许多研究表明病毒的确在寒冷天气状况下更为活跃，在温度较高时则相反。据此，我们希望随着立春的来到，疫情会逐渐平息。

Studies have shown that the virus can be strengthened by colder weather , and be adversely affected by higher temperatures.

According to this, we hope that the infections will by decrease for the Spring Begins is coming.

习俗 Customs

“打春牛”，在中国古代，立春这一天，各地官吏会立一个春牛塑像供人们“鞭打”，意在唤醒耕牛并提醒人们开始春耕。同时，许多地区还有“咬春”的习俗，就是在立春第一天吃春饼、春卷，或者吃萝卜。

“Beating the cattle”. In ancient China, the administrators would set statues of cattle for beating on this day to wake up the cattle and remind people start farming again in the start of spring. In some parts of China, people still have the custom of “Biting the spring” on the first day of Spring Begins. They eat food represent spring like pancakes, spring rolls, or a few mouthfuls of turnips.

观察物候 What to observe

立春观三候 Three phenomena of the Spring Begins

中国古人总结了不同节气变化的主要物候来判断节气的变化，立春也有三种典型的物候可以观察。

The Spring Beginsis divided into three pentads with three phenomena to observe:

第一候“东风解冻”。立春后，暖气流东移，气温回升使大地解冻。春风送来了暖风，这温暖不仅包含春风本身的和煦，还包含着一种讯息，即春天来了，大地开始解冻，万物即将苏醒。

The firstpentad,east wind contact cold.（一候东风解冻）After the Spring Begins, the warm air flow moved east and the temperature rose to thawthe earth. The spring breeze brings warm wind, which is not only warm initself, but also contains a message that spring is coming, the earth is beginningto thaw, and everything is about to wake up.

第二候“蛰虫始振”。立春后，冬天蛰伏的虫类，因为天气变暖、土地回软，慢慢从洞中苏醒过来。

The secondpentad, dormant bugs begin to wake up.（二候蛰虫始振）After the Spring Begins, insects that hadbeen hiding in caves in winter slowly came to life as the ground became softerdue to warmer weather.

第三候“鱼陟负冰”。在北方，盛寒时水面虽结冻，水底比较暖和，鱼儿潜伏在水底静候春天的到来。开春后，水面温度升高冰雪融化，鱼儿争先恐后在尚未完全融化的冰块和冰片缝隙间游动，因此古时称为“鱼上冰”。

The third pentad, the fish bears the ice.（三侯鱼陟负冰）In the north, the surface of the water freezes during the peak cold, but the bottom seems warmer, where fish lurk and wait quietly for spring. In spring, the ice on the water surface begins to melt.Fish quickly sense the change and scramble to the surface of the water to swimin the cracks between the ice and the ice that has not completely melted.Therefore, it is called "ice on fish" in ancient times.

饮食养生 What to eat

★ 春卷/春饼 Spring roll/Pancake (Chun juan/bing)

在中国北方，人们会在立春吃春饼，而南方人则会吃春卷。

In Northern China, people eat chun bing (春饼) at this day to celebrate the Spring Begins. While in Southern China, people eat spring rolls (春卷) instead.

The spring pancake took its rise from the Jin dynasty and has prospered since the Tang dynasty. People celebrated the Spring Begins by eating spring pancakes wrapped around fresh vegetables and meat, which is called bite-the-spring (咬春). Bite-the-spring implies that people are praying for a good harvest year through eating the fresh vegetables and meat at the Spring Begins. In the Qing dynasty, spring pancakes became a fried pancake wrapped around a filling that included ham, chicken, pork, black dates, scallions, walnuts and sugar.

春饼起源于晋朝，盛行于唐代。春饼是用煎饼包裹着新鲜的蔬菜和肉，人们会吃春饼来庆祝立春的到来，这就是“咬春”。人们通过在立春吃新鲜蔬菜和肉，即“咬春”的仪式，来祈祷新年能有好收成。到了清朝，春饼演变为一种油炸煎饼包裹着火腿肉、猪肉、黑枣、大葱、核桃和糖。

春饼和北京烤鸭饼差不多，只是更大一些，通常包着各种炒过的馅料。传统观念认为，菜芽可以帮助人们顺应自然升发的趋势。所以春饼里面包裹着各种嫩嫩的菜芽，如黄豆芽、小韭菜、菠菜、葱花等。这些和炒蛋和红烧肉片搭配起来相得益彰。

The pancake wrapper is just like that of a Peking roast duck, only bigger, and usually wrapped around various Chinese stir-fry fillings. The traditional belief holds that the vegetable sprouts will help people cater to the natural tendency of growing. So the spring pancake has a variety of tender vegetable sprouts wrapped inside, such as soybean sprouts, baby leek, spinach and shallot. These are complemented by flavorful fried egg and braised pork slices.

初春时节气温还很低，我们的身体需要更多的能量。建议饮食以温性或时令食物为主。

Temperature is still cold in the early spring, that our body needs more energy. Recommended diet is warm or seasonal food.

在中医理论中，春季在五行中属木，与肝脏有关。木喜水，因此在春季草木生发之时要多喝水，多吃一些能养木养肝的食物，如枸杞、菊花茶等。此时适合吃大枣、韭菜、虾仁、绿豆芽、黄豆芽、菠菜、萝卜，下面推荐两种蔬菜。

In traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) theory, spring belongs to wood in five elements which relates to liver. According to this, more water and other food that can nourishing the wood and liver are needed, like Gogi Berry and chrysanthemum tea. Chinese dates, leeks, shrimp, mung bean sprouts, soybean sprouts, spinach, turnips are best to eat at this time. Here are two vegetable recommended.

★ 萝卜 Turnip

[功效] Function

泻热解毒，祛积排痰，中医有言“冬吃萝卜夏吃姜，不用医生开药方”。

Clear excess static heat, remove heat toxins, clear digestive stagnation, remove accumulated phlegm, and stimulate body fluids. There is a wisdom in TCM saying that “eat turnip in winter, and ginger in summer, no need to see doctor any more”.

★ 韭菜 Leek

[功效] Function

行气血，散寒气。Move qi and blood, disperse cold

中医认为韭菜具有调理气机的作用。还能驱寒，促进血液循环。

In terms of TCM, leeks are known for their ability to regulate qi movement. They also help to expel cold and regulate blood circulation.

健体养生 What to do

★ 迎着朝阳“快步走” Getting up early with the sun and taking “brisk walks”

在中医典籍《黄帝内经》中有这样的说法：“春阳气上升”。即春天是阳气升发的季节，我们应该借助早起阳气最旺的特点，通过快步走来调动人体阳气。俗话说：“春夏养阳，秋冬养阴”，立春是一个转折点，人们更应该注意保存阳气，而阳气的产生与冬天的阴气密不可分。

In the Yellow Emperor’s Cannon (a classical Chinese medicine book) there is a statement which indicates that spring has a rising and ascending nature which we should utilize by “Getting up early with the sun” and taking “brisk walks”. As the saying goes, “preserve Yang in spring and summer, while preserve Yin in autumn and winter”, Spring Begins is a turning point one should pay more attention to preserving Yang Qi, which is generated from the winter’s Yin Qi state.

★ 管理情绪，远离愤怒 Manage our emotion to far away from anger

正如我们介绍的，春天属木，属肝，与愤怒情绪关系最大。而肝脏不好就容易生气。因此，提醒大家在养肝的同时，不要被愤怒和不满、急躁等情绪所控制。

As we introduce, spring belongs to wood and liver, which relates to the emotion of anger most. And it’s easy to be angry if the liver doesn’t works well. Thus, it’s important to remind us not to be control by anger and these kinds of emotions, like dissatisfaction and impatience, while nourish the liver.

★ 初春时节仍注意保暖 Keep in warm coat at the early spring

立春期间，昼夜温差大，早晨气温低。由于人体对春季多变的风适应能力差，加上皮肤的毛细血管逐渐扩张，当天气突然变冷时，人们很容易感冒。因此，此时是感冒和呼吸道疾病的易发期，要注意保暖防病。冬天的衣服不宜过早脱掉。

During Spring Begins, the temperature difference between day and night is large and the temperature in the morning is low. Due to the poor adaptability of the human body to the changeable wind direction in spring, and the gradual opening of the capillarieson the skin, people can easily catch cold when the weather suddenly turned cold. Therefore, it is the prone period of cold and respiratory diseases, and we should pay attention to keeping warm and preventing diseases. The winter-clothing should not be taken off too early.

★ 自我按摩 self-acupressure

● 立春后人体的毛孔逐渐打开，风邪夹寒邪最容易趁虛而入导致感冒，经常按摩肺经可以提升抵抗风寒的能力。肺经在我们手臂的内侧，它经过肩窝开始向下延伸到大拇指，取它上下两端的穴位来按摩就会有很好的效果，一个是肩部的中府穴，另一个是大拇指的少商穴，每天早晨起床用手半握拳各敲一百遍。

After the spring begins, the pores of the human body are gradually opened. Wind and cold evil are easy to take advantage of a cold. Regular massage of the lung meridian can improve the ability to resist wind and cold. Lung meridian in the inner side of our arm, it began to extend down to the thumb through the shoulder socket, take its upper and lower ends of the acupoint to massage have a good effect, one is the "Zhong fu point", the other is the thumb of the "Shao shang point", we can knock knock one hundred times for each with every morning

● 春属木，与肝相应，入春后，人的肝气开始旺盛，此时是调养肝脏的好时机，调肝养肝最为经典和常用的穴位就是位于脚上的“太冲穴”， 按摩太冲穴能够激发肝经的元气，有效促进肝经气血的运行，从而达到养肝补肝的目的。

Spring belongs to the wood and liver. During the spring,it’s right time to adjust liver. The classic acupoint is located at the foot"Tai chong point", massage this point can stimulate the liver meridian and promote the circulation of liver qi and blood, so as to achieve the goal of nourishing the liver .

按压太冲穴：每次按压5-10分钟，一天按压2-3次。

Tai chong (LR3) acupoint pressing: pressing 5-10 minutes each time, pressing 2-3 times a day.

指导及学术审核：中国中医科学院中医临床基础医学研究所赵静教授

翻译及资料整理：孙锐 党迎迎 石晗 焦媛 张若诗