Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/2..............................................................................................................................................2/22 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.
Solar Calendar Date
(top to bottom, right to left)
Second Month, Twenty-Eighth Day
Monday, February 28
Section Two
Beneficent Stars
(top to bottom, right to left)
生合天歲
氣日德德
Generational Exemplarity
Heavenly Exemplarity
Linked Days
Engendered Vapor
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left)
申辰甲
凶吉吉
酉巳丑
中吉吉
戌午寅
中凶吉
亥未卯
中吉吉
23:00-1:00 Auspicious
1:00-3:00 Auspicious
3:00-5:00 Auspicious
5:00-7:00 Auspicious
7:00-9:00 Auspicious
9:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious
15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
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
伐田放開
木獵水渠
Opening Irrigation Sluices
Entering Water
Field Venery (Goin' Huntin')
Felling Timber
————
Section Five
Cosmological Information
廿
八
壬
子
木
畢
開
Twenty-Eighth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)
Cyclical Day: renzi (49//60)
Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Net (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)
————
Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
上移出祭
樑徙行祀
修開訂祈
倉市婚福
栽修納入
種造采學
置動嫁會
產土娶友
動萌木草
陰天灾上
將火煞兀
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Planting and Cultivating
Setting-up Production
Grasses and Trees Sprout
(the sixth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)
Baleful Asterisms
Upper Amputee
Disastrous Balefulness
Heavenly Conflagration
Yin General
————
Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left)
丫
Bifurcation
————
Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items
碓 庫 倉
Pestle, Storehouse, Granary