清明 Qingming (Clear and Bright) Qingming means clear and bright, describing the fresh scene that everything grows in this term is clean and clear. Usually it’s between 4/4-4/5. In 2017 it’ll be 4/4. First pentad: The paulownia begins to bloom. Second pentad: Voles transform into quails. (Again this should mean the voles hide and the quails become more active.) Last pentad: Rainbows begin to appear. When yin and yang meet, such as sunlights go through a thin layer of cloud or rain, rainbow shows. From the pentad, the only animal I can find is the quails (not the voles because they disappear.) But this point I start to list out all the animals, I made a list of animals I want to draw, and check briefly all the pentads to decide which to put in. Because if I followed just the pentads, birds will be the represent animal for many terms, which I want to avoid. I want the series to have a nice diversity. Therefore since then, I sometimes pick irrelevant animals base on my personal preferenc