China's Lunar Calendar 2018 02-04

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

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2/7.................................................................................................................1/31

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-solar (or "luni-solar" calendar; I call it the "lunar" calendar in order to distinguish it from the kinds of calendars most Westerners use. It has a basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying 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. You will likely find that several of the translations seem quite "fanciful" in English. I am simply trying to convey that they also sound fairly fanciful in Chinese.

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
四
日

日期星

Second Month, Fourth Day 
Sunday, February 4

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

六歲德歲
合支日支

Generational Branch
Virtuous Days
Generational Branch
Six Linkages

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

中吉吉
亥未卯
吉吉凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
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
開穿整理
池井甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Boring Wells
Opening Ponds

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
九

丁

卯
火
昂
除
Nineteenth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingmao (4/60)

Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Pleiades (18/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)*
*Occasionally, a "day personality" is repeated in the calendar, as it is today.

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

春立
廿五卯
八時初
分        
宜
安動嫁祭
牀土娶祀
安上移出
葬樑徙行
凍解風東
朱咸楊債
雀池忌不

————

Beginning of Spring
At the beginning of the mao hour; 5:28 a.m. 
(the first of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)
 

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Moving Residences
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Positioning Graves

East Wind Melts the Ice

(the first of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences
Debt Not
Poplar Taboo
Widespread Pond
Vermilion Bird

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
白 林

White, Copse
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Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

庫 倉 門

Storehouse, Granary, Gate