Treat the Four Seasons as Four Columns
There are twenty-four solar terms in total. If you list them one by one in date order, the poster quickly becomes crowded and the main point gets lost. A simpler approach is to split the page into spring, summer, autumn and winter, then pick just two or three solar terms for each part and add one proverb plus one farming task.
Before writing on the final sheet, sketch a four-box plan on scrap paper. Decide which season goes in each box and roughly how many lines it needs, so you will not run out of space halfway through.
What Each Season Can Cover
Pick freely from the list below. Two or three entries per season are enough.
- Spring: Start of Spring, Awakening of Insects, Grain Rain. Ploughing, raising seedlings and sowing. Proverbs such as "plant melons and beans around Qingming" or "spring rain is as precious as oil".
- Summer: Grain Buds, Grain in Ear, Summer Solstice. Harvesting wheat, transplanting rice and weeding. Proverbs such as "if you miss Grain in Ear, planting is useless".
- Autumn: White Dew, Autumn Equinox, Frost Descent. Reaping rice, drying grain and planting winter vegetables. Proverbs such as "white dew, autumn equinox, the rice begins to show".
- Winter: Start of Winter, Major Snow, Winter Solstice. Repairing tools, collecting fertiliser and covering wheat fields. Proverbs such as "a snowy Minor Snow means a good year ahead".
Ways to Arrange the Four Sections
The four-box method
Draw one horizontal and one vertical guide line to create four boxes. Spring goes top left, summer top right, autumn bottom left and winter bottom right. Leave a narrow strip across the middle for the main title, and the page looks like a farm calendar.
The circle timeline
Draw a large circle in the centre and mark the Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice around it. Add four text boxes outside the circle for your proverbs. This looks lively, but keep each box to four lines at most.
Colour coding by season
Light green for spring, deep green with a touch of orange for summer, gold for autumn and blue-grey for winter. Write the text in black or dark blue so it stays readable from a distance.
Write Like a Poster, Not an Essay
Keep each paragraph to 30 to 50 words and follow this order: name of the solar term, then the proverb, then one sentence of explanation. For example: Around Grain Rain, plant melons and beans. Rain is plentiful and the soil is warm, so seeds sprout easily. Short sentences with a little explanation read well and do not crowd the page.
If space remains, add a small box called "What I Noticed" and write about a farming habit your family mentioned, or a change you saw in a field or garden. It feels more personal than copied text.
Order of Work and Small Reminders
- Decide the main title, then draw the four boxes.
- Write in pencil first and check that each box holds the right amount of text.
- Finish the writing before adding colour and small decorations such as wheat ears or clouds.
- Erase the guide lines and check for spelling mistakes or smudges.
If you are unsure how to divide the page or which proverbs to use, open the WeChat mini program "Smart Handwritten Newspaper", choose a layout from the 24 solar terms farming theme, fill in the four-season content described here, and complete your poster by hand.