The twenty-four seasons comprise a traditional solar calendar of the Chinese in use since the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). It is still used today and is an important part of Chinese cultural heritage. Apart from being very useful for farmers, it also demonstrates how a Chinese philosophy has connected human life cycles to the yearly cycles of weather and nature.

The four main characters of this first book include a weasel, fox, hedgehog, and snake. These small animals are somewhat revered by farmers all over China. They were even considered to be "animal spirits" that had magical powers. In earlier times they were even worshipped. This book is the first of a series of four stories that feature the growing up and exploits of the four friends. We have also introduced a magpie to serve as guide to some of their adventures.

Preface to The Twenty-Four Seasons
for non-native learners of Chinese

The twenty-four seasons comprise a traditional solar calendar of the Chinese in use since the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). It is still used today and is an important part of Chinese cultural heritage. Apart from being very useful for farmers, it also demonstrates how a Chinese philosophy has connected human life cycles to the yearly cycles of weather and nature.

The four main characters of this first book include a weasel, fox, hedgehog, and snake. These small animals are somewhat revered by farmers all over China. They were even considered to be "animal spirits" that had magical powers. In earlier times they were even worshipped. This book is the first of a series of four stories that feature the growing up and exploits of the four friends. We have also introduced a magpie to serve as guide to some of their adventures.

This book is a bilingual version with simplified Chinese on the left and a corresponding English translation on the right. The Chinese reflects the spoken Chinese of northern China and especially the Beijing region. The English is a direct translation that aims to remain as close as possible to the Chinese original. We hope this will help non-native learners of Chinese understand the somewhat tricky syntax of spoken Chinese. The number of Chinese characters used is around 1500, which is about the level of an HSK 4 student. The use of idioms is minimal. However, when translating rhymes and puns, some liberties have been taken. If the English deviates from the Chinese, simply because a direct translation would be "lost" in translation, the English text is marked in blue.