China's Lunar Calendar 2016 04-25

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/27.................................................................................................................4/20

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

Fourth Month, Twenty-Fifth Day

Astral Period One
Monday, April 25

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不德歲
將日支

Generational Branch
Virtuous Days
Not General

————

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

戌午寅
凶吉凶
亥未卯 

吉凶凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
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
田整理
獵甲髮
Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Field Venery 

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

十
九
丁
丑
水
危
收
Nineteenth Day Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingchou (14/60)

Phase (element): Water
Constellation: Danger (12/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Receive (10/12)

————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
動嫁會
土娶友
上裁出
樑衣行
置移訂
產徙婚
安修納
葬造采
羽其拂鳩鳴
河債牛
魁不口

————

Appropriate Activities
Meeting Friends   
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Households
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Setting-up Production
Positioning Graves  

Pigeons Flap Their Wings
(the seventeenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Ox Mouth
Debt Not
River Stalwart
————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

丫 神

White, Spirit
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

倉
厠 庫 

Granary
Toilet, Storehouse