China's Lunar Calendar 2018 02-19

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
2/19..........................................2/16..................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-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
十
九

一期星

Second Month, Nineteenth Day 
Monday, February 19

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

時合天
德日德

Heavenly Virtue
Linked Days
Timely Virtue

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

中中吉
亥未卯
吉吉吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
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
苫放開
蓋水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Thatched Coverings

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
四

壬

午

木
心

定

Fourth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renwu (19/60)

Phase (element): Wood
Constellation: Heart-Mind (5/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)

————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information  
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
水雨
十一丑
八時初
 分         
————
宜 
動嫁祭
土娶祀
安開出
葬市行
魚祭獺
俱死上
將氣兀

————

Rain Water
Beginning of the chou hour; 1:18 a.m.
(the second of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Opening Markets
Moving Soil
Positioning Graves

River Otters Sacrifice Fish
(the fourth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar) 

Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee
Death Vapor
Everything General

 
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
丫火

Bifurcation, Fire
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

倉
碓 庫

Granary
Pestle, Storehouse