China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2022 09-02

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/8.....................................................................................................................................................9/1

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)

二

日

五期星

Ninth Month, Second Day

Friday, September 2

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十生合天

靈氣日德

Heavenly Exemplarity

Linked Days

Engendered Vapor

Ten Spirits

————

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

凶中凶

酉巳丑

吉吉中

戌午寅

中中凶

亥未卯

中吉吉

23:00-1:00 Inauspicious

1:00-3:00 In-Between

3:00-5:00 Inauspicious

5:00-7:00 Auspicious

7:00-9:00 In-Between

9:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 In-Between

13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌

塔苫置買

厠蓋業田

Purchasing Land

Setting-up Industry

Thatched Coverings

Building Toilets

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初

七

戊

午

火

牛

開

Seventh Day (Eighth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: wuwu (55/60)

Phase (element): Fire

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Oxen (9/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

宜

上開出祭

樑市行祀

安交嫁祈

樑易娶福

開修納入

娶造采學

穿動移會

井土徙友

登奶

天班大水

  火煞亡空痕

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Inquiring-into Fortune

Entering Study

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Moving Residences

Opening Markets

Trade and Commerce

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Positioning Beds

Opening Irrigation Sluices

Boring Wells

Grains Ripen and Rise

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

Baleful Asterisms

Water Scar

Great Loss-Void

Classified Balefulness

Heavenly Conflagration

————

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

白 火

White, Fire

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

(the Chinese should be read left to right）

碓 牀 房

Pestle, Bed, Edifice