China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2022 10-08

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
10/16....................................................................................................................................................10/8

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)

八

日

六期星

Tenth Month, Eighth Day

Friday, October 8

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

進三歲

神合支

Generational Branch

Three Linkages

Entering Spirits

————

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

凶中凶

酉巳丑

吉中吉

戌午寅

中凶吉

亥未卯

中吉凶

23:00-1:00 Inauspicious

1:00-3:00 Auspicious

3:00-5:00 Auspicious

5:00-7:00 Inauspicious

7:00-9:00 In-Between

9:00-11:00 In-Between

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious

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

苫出開

蓋財倉

Opening Granaries

Capital Outflow

Thatched Coverings

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

三

甲

午

金

胃

收

Thirteenth Day (Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: jiawu (31/60)

Phase (element): Metal

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Stomach (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (10/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

露寒

廿十申

二五初

分時   

宜

理祭

髮祀

捕嫁

捉娶

賓來雁鴻

咸班馬

池煞口

Cold Dew

At the beginning of the shen hour; 15:22 o'clock

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

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Marriage Alliances

Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)

Seizing and Capturing

Wild Geese Arrive for Stays

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

Baleful Asterisms

Equine Orifice

Classified Balefulness

Widespread Pond

————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese is read from right to left; the English, however, "fits" directly below each character)

白 鬼

White, Ghost

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

(the Chinese is read from right to left; the English, however, "fits" intuitively in the configuration of characters)牀

占

碓 門

Divination

Pestle, Gate