China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 10-08

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
10/13.................................................................................................................................................10/7

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)

八

日

二期星

Tenth Month, Eighth Day

Tuesday, October 8

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

陰續明

德世堂

Luminous Hall

Successive Generations

Yin Exemplarity

————

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

吉凶吉

酉巳乙

吉凶吉

戌午寅

凶中中

亥未卯

凶中中

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

 01:00-03:00 Auspicious

 03:00-05:00 In-Between

 05:00-07:00 In-Between

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious

  09:00-11:00 Inauspicious

11:00-13:00 In-Between

13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

————

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

忌

除遠栽

服行種

Planting and Cultivating

Distant Travels

Discarding Clothing

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初

六

乙

巳

火

觜

危

Sixth Day (Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: yisi (42/60)

Phase (element): Fire

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

"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)*

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

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

露寒

零三寅

零時初

分       

宜

安嫁祭

牀娶祀

牧裁訂

養衣婚

賓來雁鴻

血重反

忌日支

Cold Dew

At the beginning of the yin hour; 03:00 o'clock

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

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Marriage Engagements

Marriage Alliances

Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)

Positioning Beds

Tending Flocks

Wild Geese Arrive as Guests

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

Baleful Asterisms

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

Opposèd Branch

Doubled Days

Blood Taboo

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

白 人

White, Person

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

碓

牀 磨

Pestle

Bed, Mortar