China's Lunar Calendar 2018 10-19

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
10/21............................................................................................................10/14

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

五期星

Tenth Month, Nineteenth Day  
Friday, October 19

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生驛王歲
氣馬日馬

Generational Equinity
Kingly Days
Postal Horse
Engendered Vapor

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉凶吉
酉巳丑
吉吉吉
戌午寅
中凶凶

亥未卯
中吉中

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

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

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

 ————

Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
進新安開
水船牀倉

Opening Granaries
Positioning Beds
New Boats
Entering Water

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
一
甲
申
水
鬼
開

Eleventh Day (Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiashen (21/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Ghost (23/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

作修栽祭
灶造衣祀
置動理祈
產土髮福
栽上移入
種樑徙學
成安醫出
服門病行
不債
招厭五水
搖對離痕

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Entering Study

Going Out (and about)

Cutting-out Clothing

Patterning Hair

Moving Residences

Physician Visits

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Positioning Gates

Stove Work

Setting-up Production

Planting and Cultivating

Completing Clothing

Debt Not

Baleful Asterisms

Water Scar
Five Separations
Mutual Repression
Rollicking Braggadocio

 ————

Section Seven

人

Person
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

爐 門 占

Furnace, Gate, Divination