China's Lunar Calendar 2016 04-09

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
九
日

六期星

Fourth Month, Ninth Day

Astral Period Six
Saturday, April 9

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

普合歲
護日德

Generational Virtue
Linked Days
Universal Protection

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

戌午寅
凶吉凶
亥未卯 

中中凶

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

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

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

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

忌
動造合
土酒醬
Mixing Sauces
Fermenting Beverages
Moving Soil 

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

初
三
辛
酉
木
柳
執
Third Day Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinyou (58/60)

Phase (element): Wood
Constellation: Willow (24/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

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Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
除求祭
服醫祀
化治理
靈病髮
移捕沐
柩捉浴
安田掃
葬獵舍
鴽為鼠
土五債
符虛不

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Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Patterning Hair
Bubbling and Bathing
Sweeping Floors
Seeking Physicians
Treating Illness
Seizing and Capturing
Field Venery
Discarding Cloting
Transforming Spirits
Moving Graves
Positioning Graves  

Moles Become Quails
(the fourteenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Five Voids
Earth Charm

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白

White
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Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

 廚
門 灶

Kitchen
Gate, Stove