China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2023 03-06

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/13.........................................................................................................................................................3/6

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 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)

六

日

一期星

Third Month, Sixth Day

Monday, March 6

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天合歲

喜日德

Generational Exemplarity

Linked Days

Heavenly Happiness

————

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

中吉中

酉巳丑

凶凶中

戌午寅

吉吉吉

亥未卯

吉凶吉

23:00-1:00 In-Between

1:00-3:00 In-Between

3:00-5:00 Auspicious

5:00-7:00 Auspicious

7:00-9:00 Auspicious

9:00-11:00 Inauspicious

11:00-13:00 Auspicious

13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 In-Between

17:00-19:00 Inauspicious

19:00-21:00 Auspicious

21:00-23:00 Auspicious

————

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

忌

除嫁詞

服娶訟

Lawsuits and Litigation

Marriage Alliances

Discarding Clothing

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

五

癸

亥

水

張

成

Fifteenth Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: guihai (60/60)

Phase (element): Water

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Drawn Bow (26//28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)*

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

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; right to left)

驚蟄

三四寅

十時正

六       

分       

宜

捕祭

捉祀

田沐

獵浴

華始桃

元無重

武祿日

Insects Awaken

Precisely at the yin hour; 4:36 a.m.

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

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Bubbling and Bathing

Seizing and Capturing

Field Venery (Goin' Huntin')

Peach Blossoms Open

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

Baleful Asterisms

Doubled Days

Without Emolument

Primal Martiality

————

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

丫

Bifurcation

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

占

牀 房

Divination

Bed, Edifice