China's Lunar Calendar 2018 04-05

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

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/7..............................................................................................................3/30

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.

  ***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
五
日

四期星

Fourth Month, Fifth Day 
Thursday, April 5

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

麒六歲
麟合支

Generational Branch
Six Linkages
Unicorn

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

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 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
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
穿整理
井甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Boring Wells

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

二
十
丁
卯
火

井
閉

Twentieth Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingmao (4/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Well (22/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Closed (12/12)*
*Occasionally a jianchu "personality" day is repeated (as today).

————

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

明清
十四寅
三時正
分        
 宜

動移出
土徙行
安開嫁
葬市娶
華始桐
陽兔血
將口支

————

Qingming Festival
In the yin hour; 4:13 a.m.
(the fifth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar) 

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

Paulownia Blooms
(the thirteenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Blood Branch
Rabbit Mouth
Yang General
 
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
白 山

White, Mountain
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
門
庫 倉

Gate
Storehouse, Granary
***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation***