China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2022 11-22

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/23.................................................................................................................................................11/6

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 o

f 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

二

二期星

Eleventh Month, Twenty-Second Day

Tuesday, November 22

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

進陰合月

神德日德

Lunar Exemplarity

Linked Days

Yin Exemplarity

Entering Spirits

————

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

凶中吉

酉巳丑

凶凶凶

戌午寅

中吉吉

亥未卯

凶吉吉

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

1:00-3:00 Inauspicious

3:00-5:00 Auspicious

5:00-7:00 Auspicious

7:00-9:00 In-Between

9:00-11:00 Inauspicious

11:00-13:00 Auspicious

13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

17:00-19:00 Inauspicious

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

————

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

忌

取田開穿

魚獵池井

Boring Wells

Opening Ponds

Field Venery (Goin' Huntin')

Garnering Piscinity (Goin' Fishin')

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿

九

己

卯

土

尾

定

Twenty-Ninth Day (Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: jimao (16/60)

Phase (element): Earth

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Tail (6//28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

雪小

二十申

十六正

分時   

宜

上開嫁祭

樑市娶祀

安動移出

葬土徙行

見不藏紅

元死大

  武氣亡空

Slight Snow

Precisely in the shen hour; 16:20 o'clock

(the twentieth of twenty-four five-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Moving Residences

Opening Markets

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Positioning Graves

Rainbows Hide

(the fifty-eighth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Great Loss-Void

Death Vapor

Primal Martiality

————

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

白 人

White, Person

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

(the Chinese is read from right to left; the English,

however, "fits" intuitively in the configuration of characters)

門 大占

Gate, Great, Divination