China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2022 01-20

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/24........................................................................................................................................1/17

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 o

f 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)

二

十

四期星

First Month, Twentieth Day

Thursday, January 20

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天歲三歲

喜祿合支

Generational Branch

Three Linkages

Generational Emolument

Heavenly Happiness

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

吉吉吉

酉巳丑

中吉吉

戌午寅

中中吉

亥未卯

中凶凶

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

1:00-3:00 Auspicious

3:00-5:00 Auspicious

5:00-7:00 Inauspicious

7:00-9:00 Auspicious

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 In-Between

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌
壞破動詞

垣屋土訟

Lawsuits and Litigation

Moving Soil

Destroying Rooms

Smashing Embankments

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

八

癸

酉

金

斗

成

Eighteenth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: guiyou (10//60)

Phase (element): Metal

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Southern Dipper (8/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

寒大

九三巳

分刻正

————

宜

成移掃入

服徙舍學

安上醫嫁

葬樑病娶

乳鷄

俱班地債

將煞囊不

Great Cold

Precisely at the si hour

(the twenty-fourth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Entering Study

Marriage Alliances

Sweeping Rooms

Physician Visits

Moving Residences

Raising Beams

Completing Clothing

Positioning Graves

Pheasant Hens Brood

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

Baleful Asterisms

Debt Not

Earth Duffel (Dirt Bag)

Classified Balefulness

Everything General

————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left）

白 山

White, Mountain

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

門 牀 房

Gate, Bed, Edifice