China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2022 06-06

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
6/11...............................,,,,,,,,,,,...........................................................................................................6/4

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)

六

日

一期星

Sixth Month, Sixth Day

Monday, June 6

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十天天母

靈醫喜倉

Maternal Granary

Heavenly Happiness

Heavenly Physician

Ten Spirits

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

凶吉凶

酉巳丑

中中吉

戌午寅

凶吉吉

亥未卯

中吉吉

23:00-1:00 Inauspicious

1:00-3:00 Auspicious

3:00-5:00 Auspicious

5:00-7:00 Auspicious

7:00-9:00 Auspicious

9:00-11:00 In-Between

11:00-13:00 Auspicious

13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

17:00-19:00 In-Between

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌
祈祭結經

福祭網路

Neural Pathways

Binding Nets

Venerating Ancestors

Inquiring-into Fortune

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初

八

庚

寅

木

心

成

Eighth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: gengyin (27//60)

Phase (element): Wood

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Heart-Mind (5/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)*

*Occasionally, a "day personality repeats, as it does today.

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

種種

二零子

十時正

六       

分       

宜

安開嫁會

牀市娶友

安動納出

葬土采行

生螂螳

下俱白歸

兀將虎忌

Grain in Ear

Precisely at the zi hour; 12:26 a.m.

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

Appropriate Activities

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Opening Markets

Moving Soil

Positioning Beds

Positioning Graves

Mantids Hatch

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

Baleful Asterisms

Return Taboo

White Tiger

Everything General

Lower Amputee

————

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

白 水

White, Water

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

爐 磨 碓

Furnace, Mortar, Pestle