A seasonal content calendar built on the 24 solar terms
The 24 solar terms (jieqi) divide the year into roughly fifteen-day periods — Lichun through Dahan — each with a classical season, organ affinity, and set of habits. A clinic that anchors content to them gets a new, medically grounded topic every two weeks, evergreen posts that repeat every year, and a calendar nobody else in town is using.
Key takeaways
- Twenty-four terms, roughly two weeks each, is a content calendar that already exists — the clinic just has to follow it.
- Each term maps to a season and an organ affinity (Liver in spring, Heart in summer, Lung in autumn, Kidney in winter, Spleen at the transitions), which is the post’s angle.
- Solar-term content is evergreen: written once, refreshed and re-posted every year on the same dates.
What are the 24 solar terms?
They are the traditional Chinese calendar’s division of the solar year into 24 periods of about fifteen days, each marking a point in the sun’s path and a change in weather, agriculture, and — in the classical medical texts — the body. Gregorian dates drift by a day either way from year to year; the conventional approximations are close enough for a clinic calendar.
| Season | Terms (pinyin — English, approximate start) |
|---|---|
| Spring | Lichun — Start of Spring (Feb 4) · Yushui — Rain Water (Feb 19) · Jingzhe — Awakening of Insects (Mar 6) · Chunfen — Spring Equinox (Mar 21) · Qingming — Clear and Bright (Apr 5) · Guyu — Grain Rain (Apr 20) |
| Summer | Lixia — Start of Summer (May 6) · Xiaoman — Grain Buds (May 21) · Mangzhong — Grain in Ear (Jun 6) · Xiazhi — Summer Solstice (Jun 21) · Xiaoshu — Minor Heat (Jul 7) · Dashu — Major Heat (Jul 23) |
| Autumn | Liqiu — Start of Autumn (Aug 8) · Chushu — End of Heat (Aug 23) · Bailu — White Dew (Sep 8) · Qiufen — Autumn Equinox (Sep 23) · Hanlu — Cold Dew (Oct 8) · Shuangjiang — Frost’s Descent (Oct 23) |
| Winter | Lidong — Start of Winter (Nov 7) · Xiaoxue — Minor Snow (Nov 22) · Daxue — Major Snow (Dec 7) · Dongzhi — Winter Solstice (Dec 22) · Xiaohan — Minor Cold (Jan 6) · Dahan — Major Cold (Jan 20) |
Why build a clinic calendar on them instead of on holidays?
Because holidays give a clinic twelve thin hooks a year and the solar terms give it twenty-four substantive ones, each with medicine attached. “Happy Fourth of July” says nothing about what you do. “Dashu — Major Heat: why we talk about the Spleen in the dampest weeks of summer” says exactly what you do, in your own vocabulary, to a patient who has never heard the word jieqi and is curious. The terms also solve the blank-page problem: the topic for the second half of October is decided — Shuangjiang, Frost’s Descent, the Lung, dryness, warming foods — and the only work is writing it well. Patients begin to expect the rhythm, which is the point of a calendar.
How does each term become a post, a reel, and a newsletter?
Each term carries four ingredients: the season, the organ affinity, a habit, and a food. Spring terms (Lichun through Qingming) lean on the Liver — movement, sour flavors, the frustration that builds in a stalled season. Guyu and Dashu, the late-transition terms, shift to the Spleen and damp. Summer terms belong to the Heart — sleep, bitter flavors, keeping cool without ice water. Autumn terms belong to the Lung — dryness, pears, grief, the first cold. Winter terms belong to the Kidney — rest, warmth, black foods, going to bed earlier. From that set, a static post explains the term in one card; a twenty-to-forty-five-second reel has the practitioner say one thing about it; and the newsletter opens with the term before its main topic. Lu Social’s content engine computes the current term deterministically and grounds the seasonal section in vault pages, not in a model’s memory of the almanac.
What does a year of solar-term content look like?
Two weeks per term, at least three posts and one reel every week — usually more — so each term gets roughly six posts and two reels, of which one or two carry the term explicitly and the rest carry the clinic’s two specialties. Pick a recurring shape and keep it: on the first day of the term, the explainer card; mid-term, a food or habit; near the end, a reel. Over a year that is 24 explainers, 24 food or habit posts, and 24 seasonal reels, and every one of them can be refreshed and re-posted the following year on the same dates. A fertility clinic, a sports clinic, and an herbal practice write three different Lidong posts from the same term, which is what keeps the calendar from feeling templated.
What are the rules for seasonal content?
Classical material is never attributed to a modern author — the source is the tradition, cited as such. Herbal mentions carry the standard supplement-disclosure line and never promise an outcome; “supports,” “helps with,” and “may relieve” are the honest verbs. Food and habit advice is general, not a prescription, and says so. Calls to action point to the website, never to a phone number. And the term’s date is checked against a real table, not guessed — a “Winter Solstice” post published on December 15 undermines the whole premise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do patients actually care about solar terms?
Most have never heard of them, which is the advantage. A term is a small, specific, slightly unfamiliar idea — the exact kind of thing that gets read, saved, and shared, and that positions the clinic as the place that knows something others do not.
Do the dates change every year?
By a day or so. The sun’s position, not the Gregorian calendar, defines each term. Use the conventional dates for planning and check the current year’s almanac before the post goes out.
Can a clinic that does not practice herbs use this calendar?
Yes. The organ affinity, the habit, and the food are enough for a full year of content. Herbal mentions are optional and, where used, carry the supplement-disclosure line.
Does Lu Social build this for enrolled clinics?
Yes. The seasonal-medicine series is part of the shared specialty library on every plan; newsletters on Premium and Founders open with the current term, computed from a fixed date table and grounded in vault sources.