Mangzhong 芒种 — Grain in Ear

The term of the busiest sowing — the point at which both harvest and planting are due. Mangzhong falls around 6 June. It is the term of peak agricultural workload: the winter crop is cut and the summer crop goes in at the same time.

It is a solar term — a date fixed by the sun's position, not by the moon. The term of the busiest sowing — the point at which both harvest and planting are due. Terms with heavy labour attached tend to have thin folklore — the almanac is explicit and the customs are absent, which is a useful signal when reading what a term was actually for.

The name refers to the awned grain that is ready, and the almanac treats the term as the most pressed point of the year. Very little customary practice attaches to it, which is consistent with its being a working date. It is grouped under Fire (火) in the five-element system.