China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2023 09-23

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/27...........................................................................................................................................................9/20

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)

廿

三

六期星

Ninth Month, Twenty-Third Day

Saturday, September 23

————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不德歲

將日支

Generational Branch

Exemplary Days

Not General

————

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

吉吉吉

酉巳丑

凶吉吉

戌午寅

中凶凶

亥未卯

中吉凶

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

1:00-3:00 Auspicious

3:00-5:00 Inauspicious

5:00-7:00 Inauspicious

7:00-9:00 Auspicious

9:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious

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 In-Between

————

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

忌

安出開

牀財倉

Opening Granaries

Capital Outflow

Positioning Beds

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初

九

甲

申

水

氐

閉

Ninth Day (Eighth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: jiashen (21/60)

Phase (element): Water

"Constellation Personality: Foundation (3/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Closed (12/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

分秋

五十未

十四正

分時   

宜

動交出

土易行

安移嫁

葬徙娶

聲收始雷

白血五

虎支離

Autumn Separation

Autumn Equinox

Precisely at the wei hour; 14:50 o'clock

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

Appropriate Activities

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Trade and Commerce

Moving Residences

Moving Soil

Positioning Graves

Thunder Quiets Down

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

Baleful Asterisms

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

Five Separations

Blood Branch

White Tiger

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

人 水

Person, Water

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

占

爐 門

Divination

Furnace, Gate