China's Lunar Calendar 2018 05-11

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: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/14.................................................................................................................5/7

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
一

五期星

Fifth Month, Eleventh Day 
Friday, May 11

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生合歲
氣日德

Generational Virtue
Linked Days
Engendered Vapor

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

亥未卯
凶凶吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

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
開穿詞
池井訟

Lawsuits and Litigation
Boring Wells
Opening Ponds

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
六
癸
卯
金
亢
開

Twenty-Sixth Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: guimao (40/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Neck (2/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

***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

修出祭
造行祀
動訂祈
土婚福
上納入
樑采學
栽裁會
重衣友
出蚓蚯
灾水債
煞痕不

————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Planting and Cultivating

Worms Come Forth
(the twentieth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Water Scar
Disastrous Balefulness
————
***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
(top-to-bottom; left to right)
丫 人

Bifurcation, Person
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
(top-to-bottom; left to right)
房
門 牀

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