China's Lunar Calendar 2018 04-15

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: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/15..............................................................................................................4/8

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
十
五

日期星

Fourth Month, Fifteenth Day 
Sunday, April 15

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不德天
將合月

Heavenly Lunarity
Virtuous Linkages
Not General

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

亥未卯
吉凶凶

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

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

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
田整理
獵甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Field Venery

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

三
十
丁
丑
水

房
收

Thirtieth Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingchou (14/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Edifice (4/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Receive (10/12)

————

***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)

宜

  動嫁祭
土娶祀
上納祈
樑采福
置移會
產徙友
安修出
葬造行
見始虹
五寡水
虛宿痕

————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Setting-up Production

Positioning Graves

Rainbows Begin to Be Seen

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


Baleful Astral Influences

Water Scar
Orphan Hostel
Five Voids
 
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
白 神

White, Spirit
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
倉
厠 庫

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