China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 03-26

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/31..........................................................................................................................................3/24

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

六

二期星

Third Month, Twenty-Sixth Day

Tuesday, March 26

————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不生德歲

將氣合月

Generational Lunarity

Exemplary Linkage

Engendered Vapor

Not General

————

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

吉中吉

酉巳乙

凶吉凶

戌午寅

凶中吉

亥未卯

凶凶吉

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

 01:00-03:00 Inauspicious

 03:00-05:00 Auspicious

 05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 Auspicious

  09:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 In-Between

13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

17:00-19:00 Inauspicious

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

————

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

忌

塞捕伐栽

穴垣木種

Planting and Cultivating

Felling Timber

Patching Embankments

Plugging Caves

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

七

己

丑

火

觜

開

Seventeenth Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: jichou (26/60)

Phase (element): Fire

"Constellation Personality: Beak of the Turtle (20/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

宜

動移出祭

土徙行祀

上醫訂祈

樑病婚福

作開納入

灶市采學

納修嫁會

畜造娶友

痕水

勾五無下

陳虛祿兀

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

Moving Residences

Physician Visits

Opening Markets

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Stove Work

Livestock Payments

Water Scar

Baleful Asterisms

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

Lower Amputee

Without Emolument

Five Voids

Narrative Hook

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

丫 林

Bifurcation, Copse

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

厠 門 占

Toilet, Gate, Divination