China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 02-18

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
2/21.........................................................................................................................2/13

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

八

日期星

Second Month, Eighteenth Day

Sunday, February 18

————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生時合天

氣陽日德

Heavenly Exemplarity

Linked Days

Timely Yang

Engendered Vapor

————

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

凶凶吉

亥未卯

中吉吉

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

 01:00-03:00 Auspicious

 03:00-05:00 Auspicious

 05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 Auspicious

  09:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious

13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

17:00-19:00 In-Between

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌

伐田放開

木獵水渠

Opening Irrigation Sluices

Putting-into Water

Field Venery (Goin' Huntin')

Felling Timber

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初

九

壬

子

木

虛

開

Ninth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: renzi (49/60)

Phase (element): Wood

"Constellation Personality: Void (11/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

宜

動裁出祭

土衣行祀

上移訂祈

樑徙婚福

栽開納入

種市采學

置修嫁會

產造娶友

煞班

陰天灾鼠

將火煞口

Appropriate Activities

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

Venerating Ancestors

Inquiring-into Fortune

Entering Study

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Engagements

Grain Payments 

Marriage Alliances

Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)

Moving Residences

Opening Markets

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Planting and Cultivating

Setting-up Production

Classified Balefulness

Baleful Asterisms

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

Rat Mouth

Disastrous Balefulness

Heavenly Conflagration

Yin General

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

人

Person

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

碓 庫 倉

Pestle, Storehouse, Granary