China's Lunar Calendar 2018 01-05

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/8........................................................................................................12/31

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
五
日

五期星

First Month, Fifth Day

Friday, January 5

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十德歲
靈荷月

Generational Lunarity
Virtuous Linkage
Ten Spirits

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

中凶中
亥未卯
吉吉凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
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
除整理
服甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Discarding Clothing

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十

九
丁
酉
火
婁
收
Nineteenth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingyou (34/60)

Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Mound (16/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Receive (10/12)

————

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

寒小
四十酉
十七初
九時    
分        
  宜

掃裁祭
舎衣祀
捕納沐
捉財浴
鄉北雁
復班債
喪煞不

————

Slight Cold 
(the twenty-third of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Bubbling and Bathing
Cutting-out Clothing
Capital Outflow
Sweeping Rooms
Seizing and Capturing

Wild Geese Return North
(the sixty-seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Classified Balefulness
Repeat Mourning

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
白 神

White, Spirit
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

門
庫 倉

Gate
Storehouse, Granary