China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2022 02-28

  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.        

                                                     Section One

                                                Solar Calendar Date

                                           (top to bottom, right to left)

廿

八

一期星

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