China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2022 07-07

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/11.....................................................................................................,,,,,,,,,,,..................................7/3

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)

七

日

四期星

Seventh Month, Seventh Day

Thursday, July 7

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

除月福

神恩德

Fortunate Exemplarity
Lunar Kindness

Exorcising Spirits

————

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

凶吉凶

酉巳丑

凶吉中

戌午寅

中吉吉

亥未卯

中中凶

23:00-1:00 Inauspicious

1:00-3:00 In-Between

3:00-5:00 Auspicious

5:00-7:00 Inauspicious

7:00-9:00 Auspicious

9:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 Auspicious

13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

17:00-19:00 Inauspicious

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌
針造合

灸酒醬

Mixing Sauces

Making Liquor

Acupuncture and Moxibustion

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初

九

辛

酉

木

斗

滿

Ninth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: xinyou (58/60)

Phase (element): Wood

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Southern Dipper (8/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)*

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

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

署小

三十己

十時正

八       

分       

————

宜

開裁祭

市衣祀

安理嫁

葬髮娶

至風溫

陰血灾

將忌煞

Lesser Heat

Precisely at the ji hour; 10:18 o'clock

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

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Marriage Alliances

Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)

Patterning Hair

Opening Markets

Positioning Graves

Warm Winds Arrive

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

Baleful Asterisms

Disastrous Balefulness

Blood Taboo

Yin General

————

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

人 山

Person, Mountain

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

(the Chinese should be read left to right）

廚

門 灶

Kitchen

Gate, Stove