China's Lunar Calendar 2014 10-23

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
10/23........................................................................................................................10/15

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 calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar 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. 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. 

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.

Section One
Solar Calendar Date
(top to bottom; right to left
廿
三

四期星

Tenth Month, Twenty-Third Day

Astral Period Four
Thursday, October 23

———————————————— 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天聖六
恩心合

Six Linkages
Sagely Heart-Mind
Heavenly Kindness

—————————————————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
中凶凶
酉己丑

凶中中

戌午寅
中吉吉
亥未卯

吉吉凶

23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 In-Between
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Inauspicious

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
09:00-11:00 In-Between
11:00-13:00 Auspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 Auspicious

The hours above are for Hong Kong. It is up to you if you want to recalibrate or to assume that the cyclicality of the calendar "covers" the rest of the world. This is a greater interpretive challenge than you might think.

————————————————— 

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

忌
開穿理
池井髮
Patterning Hair
Boring Wells
Opening Poinds

—————————————————  
 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

三

十
丁

卯
火

井
執

Thirtieth Day Day (Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingmao (4/60)

Phase (element): Fire

Constellation: Well (22/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

—————————————————  

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
(and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)

降霜
五十戌
十九初
七時    
分         
______________
宜
上嫁祭
樑娶祀
安動出
葬土行
收祭乃豺
小五水
耗虛痕

————
Frost Descends
(the eighteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Moving Soil

Putting-up Beams

Positioning Graves

Wolf Sacrifices Beasts
(the fifty-second of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)


Baleful Astral Influences

Water Scar
Five Voids
Small Squander

————

  
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 山
White, Mountain
————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Information

門
庫 倉

Gate
Storehouse, Granary