Birthday poem · December 20Major Snow, the 21st solar term: heavier snow.
Birth character
綠 lǜ · green
綠 combines 糸 "silk" with a sound element; it first meant green-dyed silk, then green.
萬條垂下綠絲絛
“A thousand branches droop like fringes made of jade.” — He Zhizhang, ‘Ode to the Willow’
Other dates with this poem: September 8
The poem
“The Old Fisherman” 漁翁
- 漁翁夜傍西巖宿The old fisherman sleeps by the western cliff at night;
- 曉汲清湘燃楚竹at dawn he draws water from the clear Xiang and burns Chu bamboo.
- 煙銷日出不見人The mist melts, the sun comes out, and no one is in sight —
- 欸乃一聲山水綠one creak of the oar, and hills and water turn green.
Why this poem
Liu Zongyuan on a fisherman at dawn on the Xiang River.
This day in the Chinese calendar
Solar term: Major Snow.