Chang Shih (1133–1180) was born in Mienchu in Szechuan province and later moved to Hengyang in Hunan. The son of the famous general and prime minister, Chang Chun, he served in the Southern Sung capital of Hangchou and eventually reached the post of senior compiler of the dynastic history. He was also known for his essays advocating Confucian values. Chang, Chu Hsi, and Lu Tsu-ch’ien were ranked as the three illuminati of their age. The Arrival of Spring (Lichun) is a solar period that begins shortly after the lunar New Year, usually in the first week of February. The division of the year into phases of light and dark, or yin and yang, goes back to the Yellow Emperor. In the ancient system of trigrams devised by Fu Hsi around 2800 B.C. and reworked by King Wen around 1100 B.C., east is the direction of spring and west is the direction of autumn. In the different but complementary systems of these two men, east is also seen as the direction of either fire or thunder, while west is the location of water or lakes.

Translation by Red Pine