How do we describe 九九 in english

Question

In Chinese lunar calendar, starting from 冬至, which was yesterday, you can count 9 days as the first 9 days, and subsequently second, third,...,until ninth nine days, a total of 81 days. After you count 81 days, the weather starts getting warm. My question is, are there specific english translations associated with this? I tried to describe it to other people, but find it too difficult to explain. How would you describe it to other people?

Answer 1

More precisely, the traditional Chinese calendar is a "lunisolar calendar system".

The 數九 are verses to describe observable agricultural phenomena (~物候) between winter and spring in the north temperate zone of certain regions of China. (They're not suitable for the southern regions, Manchu, west of Kokonor, or Tibet.)

After ~1644, the four-and-twenty solar terms (二十四節氣) are relatively fixed in relation to Gregorian calendar, so the winter solstice (冬至) is most likely on 21-23 December of each year; after 81 days, it's 11-13 March of the next year.

E.g. the winter solstice is on 22 December 2019, so:

一九二九不出手

During 22 Dec 2019 to 09 Jan 2020, it's so cold that people decline to expose their bare hands (keeping them in their sleeves instead).

三九四九冰上走

During 10 Jan 2020 to 27 Jan 2020, people might walk on frozen rivers (the ice is thick and solid, implying the coldest of times).

五九和六九・河邊看楊柳

During 28 Jan 2020 to 14 Feb 2020, willows along riverbanks have leaves.

七九河凍開・八九燕歸來

During 15 Feb 2020 to 23 Feb 2020, the river ice begins to break up.

During 24 Feb 2020 to 3 Mar 2020, the swallows (i.e., migratory birds) return.

九九加一九・耕牛遍地走

During 04 Mar 2020 to 21 Mar 2020, the farm cattle work every field.

(To make this answer simpler to read, I omitted the solar term [節氣] and astronomical aspects.)

how would you describe it to other people

Well, you may recommend the extract of "The American Agriculturist's Almanac" for the year 1844:

The following brief hints to the farmer, planter and gardener will be found to apply not only to the months under which they are arranged, but owing to diversity of seasons, climate and soils, they may frequently answer for other months. This precaution the considerate agriculturist will not fail to notice and apply in all cases where his judgment and experience may dictate.

https://archive.org/details/americanagricult1844alle/page/21

Have fun :)

Answer 2

This Beijing Tourism page has an English article about the 9 nine-day periods:

Nines of Winter in China

People in China talk about winter coming in nine periods and each period is 9 days long, which begins from the Winter Solstice. After 9 nine-day periods the weather becomes warmer and spring will be on its way.

The 3rd nine-day period is called ‘Sanjiu’ in Chinese, which refers to the 19th-27th days after the day of the Winter Solstice. There is an old saying in China that goes, "The days of the Sanjiu period are the coldest days."

There is a famous folk song about the Nines of Winter (called ‘Shujiu’) recording changes in the weather:

1st nine days, 2nd nine days, don’t take hands out of your pockets;

3rd nine days, 4th nine days, you can walk on ice;

5th nine days, 6th nine days, willows at the river’s edge start to sprout;

7th nine days, ice dissolves and water flows in the river;

8th nine days, wild geese fly back to northern areas;

9th nine days and the following days, farm cattle start to work in the field.

Answer 3

...are there specific [English] translations associated with this?

Starting with 数九 from Baidu Baike, and selecting the relevant parts to explain this to someone, I might say something like:

Counting Nines, also called Winter's Nine Nines, is a Chinese folk method for counting the cold period before spring. Starting from winter solstice, we count nine periods of nine days. When we reach 81 days, warm days of spring have arrived and its time for farmers to plow.

There's also Travel China Guide in English, but the wording is imprecise, so let's rewrite it:

A popular Chinese winter-solstice tradition called Counting Nine Nines involves counting nine periods of nine days starting from the winter solstice. After "nine nines" (i.e., 81 days), spring will have arrived.

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Another online example is:

People in China talk about winter coming in nine periods and each period is 9 days long, which begins from the Winter Solstice. After 9 nine-day periods the weather becomes warmer and spring will be on its way.
_{Nines of winter in China}

(This is the same as in user3306356's answer.)

And some dictionary references for 数九 are:

• the nine periods following the winter solstice (source: YouDao)
• nine periods of nine days each after winter solstice, the coldest time of the year (source: CC-CEDICT via Yabla)