China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 02-24

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/1..................................................................................................................................2/22

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

四

六期星

Second Month, Twenty-Fourth Day

Saturday, February 24

————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十時民時

靈陰日德

Timely Exemplarity

Peopled Days

Timely Yin

Ten Spirits

————

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

凶中凶

酉巳丑

吉吉中

戌午寅

凶中凶

亥未卯

中吉吉

23:00-1:00 Inauspicious

 01:00-03:00 In-Between

 03:00-05:00 Inauspicious

 05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 In-Between

  09:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 In-Between

13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌

塔苫置買

厠蓋業田

Purchasing Land

Setting-up Industry

Thatched Coverings

Building Toilets

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

五

戊

午

火

胃

定

Fifteenth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: wuwu (55/60)

Phase (element): Fire

"Constellation Personality: Stomach (17/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

元上

————

宜

動移出祭

土徙行祀

上開嫁祈

樑市娶福

安交納會

葬易采友

北雁候

俱死白馬

將氣虎口

Lantern Festival

(Celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, to complete the New Year's festivities)

Appropriate Activities

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

Venerating Ancestors

Inquiring-into Fortune

Meeting Friends

 Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Moving Residences

Opening Markets

Trade and Commerce

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Positioning Graves

Wild Geese Fly North

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

Baleful Asterisms

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

Equine Orifice

White Tiger

Death Vapor

Everything General

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

丫 火

Bifurcation, Fire

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

碓 牀 房

Pestle, Bed, Edifice