China's Lunar Calendar 2016 01-25

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/30..............................................................................................................1/23

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 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
廿
五

一期星

First Month, Twenty-Fifth Day

Astral Period One
Monday, January 25

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

六歲
合支

Generational Branch
Six Linkages

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

戌午寅
吉吉中

亥未卯
吉凶中

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
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
作修
灶廚
Repairing Kitchens
Stove Work

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

十
六
病
午
水
心
執
Sixteenth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingwu (43//60)

Phase (element): Water
Constellation: Heart-Mind (5/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12) 

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

宜

伐祭
木祀
成理
服髮
安捕
葬捉
往
鳥
厲
疾
咸馬
池口

————
Appropriate Activities  
Venerating Ancestors

Patterning Hair

Seizing and Capturing

Felling Timber

Completing Clothing

Positioning Beds  

Vulture Flies Stern and Swift
(the seventy-first of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Equine Mouth
Widespread Pond

 ———— 

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

丫 地

Bifurcation, Earth
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

廚
碓 灶

Kitchen
Pestle, Stove