China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 03-05

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/9..................................................................................................................................3/2

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)

五

日

二期星

Third Month, Fifth Day

Tuesday, March 5

————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天吉守

恩期日

Protected Days

Auspicious Time-Slice

Heavenly Kindness

————

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

吉中中

凶吉吉

戌午寅

凶中凶

亥未卯

中吉吉

23:00-1:00 In-Between

 01:00-03:00 Auspicious

 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 Auspicious

17:00-19:00 Inauspicious

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌

行置買

喪業田

Purchasing Land

Setting-up Industry

Mourning Visits

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿

五

戊

辰

木

翌

除

Twenty-Fifth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: wuchen (5/60)

Phase (element): Wood

"Constellation Personality: Wings (27/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)*

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

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

蟄驚

二十巳

十時正

三       

分       

宜

補掃出

垣舍行

塞沐理

穴浴髮

華始桃

俱三月

將喪害

Insects Awaken

Precisely at the si hour; 10:13 o'clock

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

Appropriate Activities

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

Going Out (and about)

Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)

Sweeping Rooms

Bubbling and Bathing

Patching Embankments

Plugging Caves

Peach Blossoms Begin to Bloom

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

Baleful Asterisms

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

Lunar Harm

Three Mournings

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)

房

栖 牀

Edifice

Perch, Bed