Jingzhe

For the Chinese film or the anarchist newspaper, see Jingzhe (film) and Jingzhe (Chengdu).

Jīngzhé, 惊蛰, is the 3rd of the 24 solar terms (節氣) in the traditional Chinese calendars. It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 345° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 360°. More often, it refers to the day when the Sun is exactly at a celestial longitude of 345°. In the Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around March 5 and ends around March 20.^[1][2]

Jingzhe
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	驚蟄
Simplified Chinese	惊蛰
Literal meaning	awakening of insects
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin jīng zhé Bopomofo ㄐㄧㄥ ㄓㄜˊ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization gīng jaht Jyutping ging1 zat6
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	kinh trập
Chữ Hán	驚蟄
Korean name
Hangul	경칩
Hanja	驚蟄
Transcriptions Revised Romanization gyeongchip
Japanese name
Kanji	啓蟄
Hiragana	けいちつ
Transcriptions Romanization keichitsu

Solar term

Term	Longitude	Dates
Lichun	315°	4–5 February
Yushui	330°	18–19 February
Jingzhe	345°	5–6 March
Chunfen	0°	20–21 March
Qingming	15°	4–5 April
Guyu	30°	20–21 April
Lixia	45°	5–6 May
Xiaoman	60°	21–22 May
Mangzhong	75°	5–6 June
Xiazhi	90°	21–22 June
Xiaoshu	105°	7–8 July
Dashu	120°	22–23 July
Liqiu	135°	7–8 August
Chushu	150°	23–24 August
Bailu	165°	7–8 September
Qiufen	180°	23–24 September
Hanlu	195°	8–9 October
Shuangjiang	210°	23–24 October
Lidong	225°	7–8 November
Xiaoxue	240°	22–23 November
Daxue	255°	7–8 December
Dongzhi	270°	21–22 December
Xiaohan	285°	5–6 January
Dahan	300°	20–21 January

The word 驚蟄 means the awakening of hibernating insects. 驚 is to startle and 蟄 means hibernating insects. Traditional Chinese folklore says that during Jingzhe, thunderstorms will wake up the hibernating insects, which implies that the weather is getting warmer.^[3]

Pentads

Each solar term can be divided into 3 pentads (候). They are the first pentad (初候), the second pentad (次候), and the third pentad (末候): Pentads in Jingzhe are

China

• First pentad: traditional Chinese: 桃始華; simplified Chinese: 桃始华 (pīnyīn: Táo shǐ huá), 'The peaches begin to blossom'.
• Second pentad: traditional Chinese: 倉庚鳴; simplified Chinese: 仓庚鸣 (pīnyīn: Cāng gēng míng), 'Orioles sing clearly'.
• Last pentad: traditional Chinese: 鷹化為鳩; simplified Chinese: 鹰化为鸠 (pīnyīn: Yīng huà wéi jiū), 'Eagles are transformed into doves'.

Japan

• First pentad: Japanese: 蟄虫啓戸 (Romanisation: Chitchū kei to), 'Awakening of hibernating insects'.
• Second pentad: Japanese: 桃始笑 (Romanisation: Momo Hajime Emi), 'Peach trees start to bloom (smile)'.
• Last pentad: Japanese: 菜虫化蝶 (Romanisation: Na mushi-ka chō), 'Caterpillars become butterflies'.

Date and time

Date and Time (UTC)

year	begin	end
辛巳	2001-03-05 12:32	2001-03-20 13:30
壬午	2002-03-05 18:27	2002-03-20 19:16
癸未	2003-03-06 00:04	2003-03-21 00:59
甲申	2004-03-05 05:55	2004-03-20 06:48
乙酉	2005-03-05 11:45	2005-03-20 12:33
丙戌	2006-03-05 17:28	2006-03-20 18:25
丁亥	2007-03-05 23:18	2007-03-21 00:07
戊子	2008-03-05 04:58	2008-03-20 05:48
己丑	2009-03-05 10:47	2009-03-20 11:43
庚寅	2010-03-05 16:46	2010-03-20 17:32
辛卯	2011-03-05 22:29	2011-03-20 23:20
壬辰	2012-03-05 04:21	2012-03-20 05:14
癸巳	2013-03-05 10:14	2013-03-20 11:01
甲午	2014-03-05 16:02	2014-03-20 16:57
乙未	2015-03-05 21:57	2015-03-20 22:48
丙申	2016-03-05 03:42	2016-03-20 04:30
丁酉	2017-03-05 09:32	2017-03-20 10:30
戊戌	2018-03-05 15:30	2018-03-20 16:24
己亥	2019-03-05 21:12	2019-03-20 22:06
庚子	2020-03-05 02:56	2020-03-20 03:54
Source: JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System

Related topics

• Villain hitting

Cultural references

Lim Giong has a 2005 album titled Insects Awaken.

Jingzhe (film) is a 2004 Chinese film directed by Wang Quan'an.

References

1. "24 Solar Terms". Travel China Guide. Retrieved 12 September 2017. In 2017 ... The Waking of Insects (Jing Zhe) Mar. 5th Hibernating animals come to sense
2. Jīngzhé,ABC Chinese–English Dictionary: Alphabetically Based Computerized, page 308, by John DeFrancis (1999; University of Hawaiʻi Press Archived 2007-12-10 at the Wayback Machine; ISBN 978-0824821548)
3. Shu, Catherine (27 February 2009). "South Village welcomes spring with snacks — and an eye on environmental awareness". Taipei Times. Retrieved 7 January 2017.

Preceded by Yushui (雨水)

Solar term (節氣)

Succeeded by Chunfen (春分)