The 24 Solar Terms Magazine

The 24 Solar Terms Magazine walks through the traditional Chinese calendar about two weeks at a time. It’s laid out like a printed magazine: four seasonal chapters, each opened by a full-page plate and closed by a poem, with the terms themselves in between.

Inside a term page

Every term page gives the name in English and Chinese characters (the contents page adds the pinyin), the usual dates in the Northern Hemisphere, and the three pentads that each term is divided into, one short line of observation apiece. Each page is illustrated with an antique plate chosen for that term, a flower, grain, bird or insect, captioned with its common name, Latin name and the artist. Some pages add a note on a custom tied to the term and what was eaten at that time.

Each season has its own color, washed across the page with a band down the outer edge, so the four chapters are easy to tell apart when the pages are loose.

The pages you write on

The appendix turns the magazine into something to use through the year. There are four simple recipes, one per season, then a tracker with one line for each of the 24 terms and columns for what you noticed outside and what you did. A notes page holds four blank term entries for weather, what you noticed, what you ate and what you want to try, and you can print it as often as you need. The last page suggests further reading.

Printing

Print in color at 100% on the file that matches your paper. The seasonal colors carry the design, so check that your printer isn’t in draft or toner-saving mode. The printing note singles out the four chapter openers and the four poem pages as the ones that frame well. The dates in the magazine follow the Northern Hemisphere, as the magazine itself points out.