Rainwater 雨水

Usui (雨水): February 19—Rain water

Of the twenty-four solar points 二四節季 of the traditional Chinese calendar, seven are concerned with states of water.

In autumn, there is the time of white dew 白露 and the time of cold dew 寒露. This is followed by frosts falling 霜降. And in winter, the small snows 小雪 come before the big snows 大雪.

Spring sees the time of rain water 雨水 and the time of the grain rains 穀雨.

Something wonderful is the way the calendar lingers on how one thing feels different from another. How white dew feels different from cold dew.

It also depicts a worldview in which something can be transformed into something else. This is especially obvious in the 72 micro-seasons, where summer sees “rotted weeds turning into fireflies.” Or in spring, when “hawks turn into doves.”

Liza Dalby in her book East Wind Melts Ice writes about the ancient Greeks also seeing such transformations in the natural world as hawks transform into cuckoos.

In Japan, she writes, yams were thought to turn into eels.

I want to imagine the leaves on the trees out my window being transformed into singing frogs or potatoes turning into parrots.

During this time of Rainwater 雨水, we stop and notice snow becoming rainwater. No longer sticking on the ground, it is a time of puddles and slush. According to my almanac, this is also when we first see new buds.

#spring