Our ancestors observed weather changes and accumulated rich experience in their struggle with nature. As early as 3,000 years ago, there are many descriptions of weather in the Yin Ruins Oracle Bone Inscriptions. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Xunzi pointed out in "The Theory of Heaven" that "Heaven behaves in a regular way." This sentence means that there are objective laws for changes in weather and climate. Xunzi also proposed to "control the destiny of heaven and use it", which means that people should understand, utilize and transform weather and climate.

The weather proverbs best illustrate the ancient working people’s understanding of the weather. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Chong said in "Lunheng·Change Chapter": "Therefore, if it rains, ants will migrate, earthworms will come out, the strings of the piano will slow down, and chronic diseases will appear." This sentence means that if it rains, ants will move. Earthworms come out of their holes, piano strings become loose, and some old ailments of the human body recur. Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty also described weather proverbs in "Essentials of Qi Min", such as "If the weather is sunny, it will be frosty at night" and so on. To this day, it is impossible to verify how many proverbs about weather there are. Moreover, because China has a vast territory and the weather and climate vary from place to place, the weather proverbs from place to place are also different. However, weather proverbs are rich in content and can accurately predict the local weather most of the time.

From Heilongjiang in the north to the South China Sea Islands in the south, from the East China Sea in the east to Xinjiang and Tibet in the west, there are weather proverbs everywhere. For example, Heilongjiang has "cold early winter and heavy spring rain", and the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea have many weather proverbs about typhoons, such as "The ancient dragon is basking in the sun, and soon the typhoon will be violent." There are also many proverbs about long, medium and short-term weather changes in the East China Sea. For example, in the Zhoushan Islands, "if the lantern is turned on when there is a storm, the rice flowers will be blown away by the wind." This proverb means: from the 13th day of the first lunar month (lighting up the lantern) to the 18th (Turn off the lanterns) If you encounter strong northerly winds, it indicates that typhoons will affect the early rice blooming or harvesting in June and July. Xinjiang and Tibet also have many weather proverbs, such as "heavy snow in winter, warm and windy spring in the coming spring" in southern Xinjiang, "strong wind and sand in spring, little rain in summer" in Tibet, etc.