China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2023 09-08

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/14....................................................................................................................................................................9/7

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

五期星

Ninth Month, Eighth Day

Friday, September 8

————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天天臨歲

醫喜日馬

Generational Equinity

Entering Days

Heavenly Happiness

Heavenly Physician

————

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

吉中吉

酉巳丑

凶中凶

戌午寅

中吉凶

亥未卯

凶吉凶

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

1:00-3:00 Inauspicious

3:00-5:00 Inauspicious

5:00-7:00 Inauspicious

7:00-9:00 In-Between

9:00-11:00 In-Between

11:00-13:00 Auspicious

13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

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

行成除遠

喪服靈行

Distant Journeys

Exorcising Spirits

Completing Clothing

Mourning Visits

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿

四

己

巳

木

婁

成

Twenty-Fourth Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: jisi (6/60)

Phase (element): Wood

"Constellation Personality: Mound (16/28)
"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; left to right)

露白

二五卯

十時初

七       

分       

宜

動移嫁祭

土徙娶祀

上開納會

樑市采友

來雁鴻

陰朱重大

  將雀日亡空

White Dew

At the beginning of the mao hour; 5:37 o'clock

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

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Meeting Friends

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Moving Residences

Opening Markets

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Wild Geese Arrive

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

Baleful Asterisms

(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)

Great Loss-Void

Doubled Days

Vermilion Birds

Yin 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)

牀 門 占

Bed, Gate, Divination