China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 03-20

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/23..........................................................................................................................................3/15

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)

二

十

三期星

Third Month, Twentieth Day

Wednesday, March 20

————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

民時

日德

Successive Generations

Three Linkages

Yin Exemplarity

Ten Spirits

————

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

中中吉

酉巳乙

凶吉凶

戌午寅

凶吉吉

亥未卯

中凶吉

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

 01:00-03:00 Inauspicious

 03:00-05:00 Auspicious

 05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 In-Between

  09:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 Auspicious

13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 In-Between

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

進新針詞

水船灸訟

Lawsuits and Litigation

Acupuncture and Moxibustion

New Boats

Entering Water

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

一

癸

未

木

壁

訂

Eleventh Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: guiwei (20/60)

Phase (element): Wood

"Constellation Personality: Eastern Wall (14/28)

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

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

分春

令飾午

六一初

分時    

————

宜

上移出祭

樑徙行祀

安動嫁會

葬土娶友

至鳥玄

死水債楊

氣痕不忌

Spring Equinox

At the beginning of the wu hour; 11:06 o'clock

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

Appropriate Activities

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

Venerating Ancestors

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Moving Residences

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Positioning Graves

Swallows Return

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

Baleful Asterisms

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

Poplar Taboo

Debt Not

Water Scar

Death Vapor

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

人 人

Person, Person

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

厠 牀 房

Toilet, Bed, Edifice