China's Lunar Calendar 2018 01-10

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/16........................................................................................................1/9

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
十
日

三期星

First Month, Tenth Day

Wednesday, January 10

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

時德歲歲
德日支德

Generational Virtue
Generational Branch
Virtuous Days
Timely Virtue

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

吉中吉
亥未卯
中凶凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
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.
                             —————————————————

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

忌
祈祭放開
福祀水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
四

壬
寅
金
參

除
Twenty-Fourth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renyin (39/60)

Phase (element): Metal
Constellation: Gathering (21/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

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

宜

作動開入
灶土市學
成上立理
服樑約髮
除安交掃
服門易舎
安安修移
葬牀造居
巢始鵲
陰劫五小
  將煞虛空亡

————

Appropriate Activities
Entering Study
Patterning Hair
Sweeping Rooms
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Making Appointments
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Gates
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Completing Clothing
Discarding Clothing
Positioning Graves

Magpies Nest
(the sixty-eighth of seventy-two five-day micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Small Loss-Void

Five Voids

Plundered Balefulness

Yin General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
白

White
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

爐 庫 倉

Furnace, Storehouse, Granary