China's Lunar Calendar 2015 01-06

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/10..........................................................................................................................1/3

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
六
日

二期星

First Month, Sixth Day

Astral Period Two
Tuesday, January 6

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天解天
恩神貴

Heavenly Nobility
Unleashing Spirits
Heavenly Kindness

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

中吉吉

戌午寅
中中吉
亥未卯
吉凶吉

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

07:00-09:00 In-Between
9:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 In-Between
13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
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
搭放開
厠水渠
Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Constructing Toilets

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

十
六
壬
戊

水

室
執

Sixteenth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renwu (19/60)

Phase (element): Water

Constellation: Danger (13/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)*
*Occasionally a day "personality" repeats, as it does today.

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

寒小
廿零子
一時正
分       
宜
除理祭
服髮祀
安動出
葬土行
鄉北雁
俱咸五
將池虛

————
Small Cold
At the zi hour; 12:21 AM
(the twenty-third of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)


Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Patterning Hair
Moving Soil
Discarding Clothing
Positioning Graves

Wild Geese Return to Northern Homes
(the sixty-seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Five Voids
Widespread Pond
Everything General

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
丫 地
Bifurcation, Earth

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Section Eight

Miscellaneous

倉
碓 庫

Granary

Pestle, Storehouse