China's Lunar Calendar 2018 03-16

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/16.....................................................................................................................3/9

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-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
六

五期星

Third Month, Sixteenth Day 
Friday, March 16

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月陰三四
恩德合相

Four Facings
Three Linkages
Yin Virtue
Lunar Kindness

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

亥未卯
吉吉凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
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
針栽整理
灸種甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Planting and Cultivating
Injections and Moxibustion

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
九
丁

未

亢
定

Twenty-Ninth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingwei (44/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Neck (2/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

修修裁祭
倉造衣祀
安動移祈
牀土徙福
納上開會
畜樑市友
安醞交出
葬釀 易行
鳩為化鷹
陽血死八
將忌氣專

————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Cutting-out Clothing

Moving Households

Opening Markets

Trade and Commerce

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Fermenting Beverages

Repairing Granaries

Positioning Beds

Livestock Payments

Positioning Graves

Hawks Turn Into Doves
(the ninth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

 Baleful Astral Influences

Eight Specialties
Death Vapor
Blood Taboo
Yang General
 
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
白 人

White, Person
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

厠 庫 倉

Toilet, Storehouse, Granary