China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 11-27

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/30....................................................................................................................................................11/23

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

七

三期星

Eleventh Month, Twenty-Seventh Day

Wednesday, November 27

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月天天天

恩醫喜德

Heavenly Exemplarity

Heavenly Happiness

Heavenly Physician

Lunar Kindness

————

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

吉中吉

酉巳乙

中凶凶

戌午寅

凶中吉

亥未卯

吉中吉

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 Inauspicious

11:00-13:00 In-Between

13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

17:00-19:00 In-Between

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 Auspicious

————

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

忌

田捕時栽

獵捉插種

Planting and Cultivating

Timely Injections

Seizing and Capturing

Field Venery (Goin Huntin')

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿

七

乙

未

金

壁

成

Twenty-Seventh Day (Tenth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: yiwei (32/60)

Phase (element): Metal

"Constellation Personality: Eastern Wall (14/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top to bottom; left to right)

宜

開動訂祭

倉土婚祀

安上納祈

牀樑采福

納築裁入

畜堤衣學

安醞修會

葬釀造友

降下氣地藤上氣天

厭四債下

對擊不兀

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Inquiring-into Fortune

Entering Study

Meeting Friends

Marriage Engagements

Grain Payments

Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Constructing Dikes

Fermenting Beverages

Opening Granaries

Positioning Beds

Livestock Payments

Positioning Graves

Heaven's Vapors Rise; Earth's Vapors Descend

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

Baleful Asterisms

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

Lower Amputee

Debt Not

Four Fisticuffs

Mutual Loathing

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

丫

Bifurcation

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

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

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

厠 磨 碓

Toilet, Mortar, Pestle