China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2023 06-06

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
6/8........................... .................................................................................................................................6/1

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)

六

日

二期星

Sixth Month, Sixth Day

Tuesday, June 6

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不守三歲

將日合支

Generational Branch

Three Linkages

Protected Days

Not General

————

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

吉中吉

酉巳丑

凶凶凶

戌午寅

吉凶吉

亥未卯

吉中吉

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 In-Between

13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

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

行成除栽

喪服靈種

Planting and Cultivating

Exorcising Spirits

Completing Clothing

Mourning Visits

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

九

乙

未

金

尾

除

Nineteenth Day (Fourth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: yiwei (32/60)

Phase (element): Metal

"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Tail (6/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)*

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

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

種芒

十六卯

八時正

分       

宜

上移嫁祭

樑居娶祀

安動納出

葬土采行

生螂螳

勾三大債

  陳喪亡空不

Grain in Ear

Precisely at the mao hour; 06:16 o'clock

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

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Moving Households

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Positioning Graves

Mantids Hatch

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

Baleful Asterisms

Debt Not

Great Loss-Void

Three Mournings

Narrative Hook

————

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

白 林

White, Copse

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

厠 磨 碓

Toilet, Mortar, Pestle