Summer · No.12
Major Heat
Da Shu
The hottest stretch of the year, thick with humidity and sudden storms, while the plants grow at full speed.
Major Heat usually falls inside the sanfu period, the hottest weeks of the Chinese year. Along the Yangtze, heat and moisture thicken together; typhoons hit the south coast; the north-west bakes dry. Rice loves it: ears fill, and cotton flowers and sets bolls. Fireflies come out at night, the soil steams, and one thunderstorm follows another. A saying warns that if it is not hot now, the grain will not fill. Fujian eats lychees and lamb, Shandong drinks mutton soup, Guangdong boils grass jelly, all to replace what sweating takes out.
Three pentads
- 1
Fireflies rise from damp grass after dark
- 2
The soil stays wet and the air is suffocating
- 3
Heavy rain falls often and cools the evening
What people eat now
mung bean soup
A pot of mung bean soup, cooled and drunk through the day, is how older generations got through Major Heat.
grass jelly
In Fujian and Guangdong people eat grass jelly at Major Heat, a dark trembling set served with syrup and peanuts.
winter melon
Winter melons are heaviest at Major Heat, thick white flesh simmered with pork ribs into a clean, light soup.
What people wear
Major Heat is the peak of damp heat. Wear loose, pale, absorbent clothes and expect to change twice a day. Take a hat and water, and stay out of the noon sun; dry your sweat before sitting in air conditioning and keep it moderate. On sticky nights a thin cotton pyjama beats sleeping bare.