China's Lunar Calendar 2016 04-04

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/11....................................................4/7......Monthly Calendar Information

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
四
日

一期星

Fourth Month, Four Day

Astral Period One
Monday, April 4

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十守歲
靈日德

Generational Virtue
Protected Days
Ten Spirits
—————

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

戌午寅
凶中凶
亥未卯 

吉中中

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
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
行作修
喪灶廚
Repairing Kitchens
Stove Work
Mourning Visits

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
七
丙
辰
土
畢
除
Twenty-Seventh Day Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingchen (53/60)

Phase (element): Earth
Constellation: Net (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

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Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
明清
三十申
十六正
八時    
分        
宜
動移祭
土徙祀
上理出
樑髮行
華始桐
陽三上
將喪兀

————
Qingming—Pure Brightness
In the shen hour; 16:38 o'clock
(the fifth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)  

Appropriate Activities
 Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Moving Households
Patterning Hair
Moving Soil
Raising Beams

Paulownia Blooms
(the thirteenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee
Three Mournings
Yang General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

丫 火

Bifurcation, Fire
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

廚
栖 灶 

Kitchen
Perch, Stove