The Meteorology Material of Chinese Terrain in 1971~2000 shows that except several provices such as Qinghai Province, Gansu Province, Shanxi Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Anhui Province experience their highest temperatures in the Great Heat period, most parts of China experience their highest temperatures during the Minor Heat period. In most areas of the 32 provinces/cities (include Taiwan Province), the average temperature in July is higher than that in August.July is actually the hottest month of the year. The Minor Heat, occurs in July, is really hot. 

 

In ancient times, our forefathers divided the Minor Heat into three pentads—”the first one is the arrival of hot wind; the second one is the crickets’ settlement in the corner; the third one is the hawks’ fighting in the air”. There will be no cool breeze any more during the Minor Heat. Instead, there will be winds carrying hot waves.

In The Rites, it is said that “the crickets are born in the earth, and they live in the wall of caves once they have fly, when July arrives they fly into the field.” Probably there is hostility when they are born in the caves and they fight with each other in the field. The book of Odes (July ) describes that crickets live in the field in July and fly in the field in August, When it’s September they live in the house and then they beneath my bed in October. The “August” in the text above is the June in the calendar, which is also the time of Minor Heat. Due to the hot weather the crickets leave the field to the corners of the yard to avoid the heat.

“The hawks start to learn” was changed into “the hawks start to fight with each other” in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) by a man whose surname is Ying. He said “the hostility is not solved” especially violent birds, such as hawks, start fighting with each other in order to confront with the challenge of enemy. In this solar term, hawks will fly in the cool upper air instead of the hot lower altitude.