The saying of double spring and double rain, half man and half ghost
The meaning of this sentence is usually considered as an expression of "bad luck and bad harvest", which means that if there is too much rain, crops may be destroyed by water and many people will naturally starve to death. So "half man and half ghost" means that many people will be affected or even starve to death because of the bad years.
It is also said that some people judge by experience that if there are two beginning of spring in a year, the probability of rain will be more than in previous years. And if there is no spring year, the temperature will rise earlier. Therefore, this sentence is mainly used by ordinary people to sum up the experience and lessons of agricultural life. So the so-called "half man and half ghost" is exaggerated. In modern agricultural production, it has been able to better cope with the drastic or even extreme changes in the weather and try to avoid the impact on the harvest.
The saying of double spring and double rain
It is very rare to encounter "double spring and double rain", because Jiazi only turns once every 60 years, and two beginning of spring rains only once every six Jiazi years, that is, once every 360 years. It is estimated that the last Jiazi year of "double spring and double rain" was in the apocalypse of Ming Dynasty. It is said that this is an artificial arrangement of China's old calendar. The old calendars used by China are also called summer calendars and lunar calendars, which are a combination of yin and yang.
Its month is determined by the time when the moon is full and short. The moon is full and short every 29 and a half days. So 12 months is only about 354 days. The Gregorian calendar (Gregorian calendar) takes the earth around the sun for one year, about 365 days, so the old calendar is eleven or twelve days less than the Gregorian calendar. In order to make up for the time difference and coordinate the lunar calendar, our ancestors used 19 plus seven leap months (seven leap months in nineteen years) to adjust it, that is, it was consistent with the solar calendar.
Therefore, there is a saying that "two jumps in three years, two jumps in three years". A.D. 1984 Jiazi year is a leap year, so October is a leap year. So 1984 (Jiazi year) has 26 solar terms. The last two solar terms are the second beginning of the spring rain in Jiazi that year. This is "double spring and double rain".