The Clear and Bright 清明

The Qingming Festival: April 5

Fifteen days after the Vernal Equinox, we enter the time of the Clear and Bright. In Japanese, Seimei 清明 is an abbreviation of "pure and clear" 清浄明潔, and it means that all things at this time of year appear pure and lively in the spring sunlight. The sky is so blue. And flowers and trees are beginning to bloom everywhere.

On the TV news, people have been following the great wave of sakura blossoming across the country. Starting in the far south, cherry blossoms burst into bloom south to north. By this time, they have already begun to scatter in Tokyo. In addition to the sakura, according to Japanese changes to the calendar, this time of year is also known for the return of the swallows 玄鳥至 from climes far to the south, as well as the departure of geese 鴻雁北, which leave Honshu and fly north for summer.

This is also when people see rainbows 虹始見.

Why rainbows? Around the equinoxes, it was thought that there was an even balance between yin and yang and this brought many unique phenomena—like the thunder and lightening of autumn and spring and rainbows! In China, they were likened to dragons. That is why the kanji used to write rainbow 虹 has an insect/worm/reptile radical 虫。These rainbow serpents were thought to be generated when yin and yang were in balance.

The term seimei 清明 comes from the ancient Chinese Qingming festival, where it was turned into one of the twenty-four solar terms of the calendar. As I wrote in my last post, Qingming is a day when people in China even now travel back to their hometowns to sweep the tombs of their ancestors ~~~and celebrate the return of spring. Long ago, it was customary on this day to take to the hills 踏青—getting out in nature, to hike and picnic with family and friends. People also probably engaged in picking mountain herbs 山菜摘み.

From picnics and the celebration of the return of light, the Qingming festival has always reminded me of the Persian custom of Nowruz. To get out into the world and celebrate springs and all that it brings — regeneration, rebirth, fertility, growth and new beginnings. I have read that some Persian people do include remembrance of dead ancestors and visiting graves as part of the Nowruz festivities—on the eve of the holiday. According to my almanac, in China the Qingming festival was codified during the Tang dynasty—so it’s not too far-fetched to think that there was a Persian influence, since Persian culture was the height of fashion in Tang China.

While not celebrated in Japan, the custom is a big deal in Okinawa. 清明祭, シーミー or しーみー: shiimii (also Romanized as “shimi”) in Okinawan language. In Japanese it is pronounced Seimei-sai.

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PS

I never realized this till today, but the ancient Chinese festival of Cold Foods, when all fires were prohibited for a few days and people only consumed cold food, occurred around the time of the Qingming festival. Over time the two festivals merged.

One of the works of calligraphy that I never managed to see— despite desperately longing to — was Su Shi’s Cold Food Observance. The calligraphy (top image) is housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei and is one of the masterpieces my calligraphy teacher would take his top students to study on their annual pilgrimages to Taipei.

Scholar Su Shi, who was accused of literary slander and banished to Huangzhou (黃州), created this piece during his 3rd year of exile, during the Cold Food Festival, expressing his feelings of loneliness and melancholy. There are many interesting stories surrounding the origins of both these festivals…. as well as the dragon boat festival of next month.

The National Palace Museum made a wonderful six minute video about the calligraphy.

For more on my calligraphy lessons, please see It’s Hailing Calligraphy at 3 Quarks Daily.