China's Lunar Calendar 2015 05-06

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/9.....................................................................................................................5/2

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
六
日

三期星

Fourth Month, Sixth Day

Astral Period Three
Wednesday, May 6

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

吉官六歲
期日合支

Generational Branch
Six Linkages
Official Days
Auspicious Temporal-slice

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

中吉凶

戌午寅
中中吉
亥未卯
凶吉吉

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

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

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
成除放開
服靈水渠
Opening Sluices

Putting-into Water

Exorcising Spirits

Completing Clothing

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

十
八
壬
午
木

參
除

Eighteenth Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renxu (19/60)

Phase (element): Wood

Constellation: Gathering (21/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

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

夏立
三五三寅
分時時初

宜
內動理祭
畜土髮祀
安上醫出
葬樑病行
鳴蟈螻
俱復咸債
將喪池不

————
Beginning of Summer
At the beginning of the the yin hour; 3:53 AM
(the seventh of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Patterning Hair
Physician Visits
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Livestock Payments
Positioning Beds

Little Frogs Peep
(the nineteenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Widespread Pond
Repeat Mourning
Everything General

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
白
White

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Section Eight

Miscellaneous

碓 庫 倉

Pestle, Storehouse, Granary