China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2021 05-10

 Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/11........................................................................................................................................5/4

This is one in a never-ending series—following the movements of the calendar—in Round and Square perpetuity. It is today's date in the Chinese lunar-solar (or "luni-solar" calendar; I call it the "lunar" calendar in order to distinguish it from the kinds of calendars most Westerners use. It has a basic translation and minimal interpretation. 

As for interpreting the translation, unless you have been studying calendars (and Chinese culture) for many years, you will likely find yourself asking "what does that mean?" I would caution that "it" doesn't "mean" any one thing (almost any "it" you will see). There are clusters of meaning, and they require patience, reflection, careful reading, and, well, a little bit of ethnographic fieldwork. The best place to start is the introduction to "Calendars and Almanacs" on this blog. I teach a semester-long course on this topic and, trust me, it takes a little bit of time to get used to the lunar calendar. Some of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years. And do not assume that people from China understand the traditional calendar particularly well, either. I have encountered confusion and furrowed brows for countless items in the calendar. It can seem "remote," in other words, from the world we live in these days, and yet it is printed anew every single year.

As time goes on, I will link all of the sections to lengthy background essays. This will take a while. In the meantime, take a look, read the introduction, and think about all of the questions that emerge from even a quick look at the calendar. You will likely find that several of the translations seem quite "fanciful" in English. I am simply trying to convey that they also sound fairly fanciful in Chinese.                       

                                                           Section One

                                                    Solar Calendar Date

                                              (top to bottom, right to left)

十

日

一期星

Fifth Month, Tenth Day

Monday, May 10

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

聖十德歲

心靈日支

Generational Branch

Exemplary Days

Ten Spirits

Sagely Heart-Mind

————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰甲

吉中凶

酉巳丑

吉吉中

戌午寅

中中凶

亥未卯

凶凶中

23:00-1:00 Inauspicious

1:00-3:00 In-Between

3:00-5:00 Inauspicious

5:00-7:00 Auspicious

7:00-9:00 In-Between

9:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 In-Between

13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

————

Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
塔苫置買

厠蓋葉田

Purchasing Land

Setting-up Industry

Thatched Coverings

Building Toilets (Outhouses)

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿

九

戊

午

火

心

除

Twenty-Ninth Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: wuwu (55/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Heart-Mind (5/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

宜

上醫祭

樑病祀

安開出

門市行

作動理

灶土髮

安竪掃

葬柱舍

出蚓蚯

九咸陽上

  鬼土池將兀   

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Going Out (and about)

Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)

Sweeping Rooms

Physician Treatments

Opening Markets

Moving Soil

Erecting Pillars

Raising Beams

Positioning Gates

Stove Work

Positioning Graves

Earthworms Emerge

(the twentieth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee

Yang General 

Widespread Pond

Nine Ghost-Soils

————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
白

White

————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation is under the bottom of each character)

碓 牀 房

Pestle, Bed, Edifice