China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2023 01-15

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/21.......................................................................................................................................................1/14

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)

十

五

日期星

First Month, Fifteenth Day

Sunday, January 15

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

三天天天

合醫喜貴

Heavenly Nobility

Heavenly Happiness

Heavenly Physician

Three Linkages

————

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

凶吉吉

酉巳丑

中吉吉

戌午寅

中中吉

亥未卯

中凶凶

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

1:00-3:00 Auspicious

3:00-5:00 Auspicious

5:00-7:00 Inauspicious

7:00-9:00 Auspicious

9:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 In-Between

13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

17:00-19:00 In-Between

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌

塞補動詞

穴垣土訟

Lawsuits and Litigation

Moving Soil

Patching Embankments

Plugging Caves

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿

四

癸

酉

金

房

成

Twenty-Fourth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: guiyou (10/60)

Phase (element): Metal

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Edifice (4//28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; right to left)

宜

上掃嫁入

樑舍娶學

醞醫裁出

釀病衣行

成開移訂

服市徙婚

安交理納

葬易髮采

雛雉

俱地班密

將囊煞日

Appropriate Activities

Entering Study

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Engagements

Grain Payments

Marriage Alliances

Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)

Moving Residences

Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)

Sweeping Rooms

Physician Visits

Opening Markets

Trade and Commerce

Raising Beams

Fermenting Beverages

Completing Clothing

Positioning Graves

Pheasant Cock Calls its Mate

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

Baleful Asterisms

Mysterious Days

Classified Balefulness

Earth Duffel (Dirt Bag)

Everything General

————

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

白 山

White, Mountain

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

門 牀 房

Gate, Bed, Edifice