China's Lunar Calendar 2018 12-07

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
12/10...............................................12/7...........Monthly Calendar Information

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
七十
日二
    月

五期星

Twelfth Month, Seventh Day  
Friday, December 7

————
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生合歲
氣日德

Generational Exemplarity
Linked Days
Engendered Vapor

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

亥未卯
中凶凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
進新詞
水船訟

Lawsuits and Litigation
New Boats
Entering Water

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
一
癸
酉
金
婁
開

First Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: guiyou (10/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Mound (16/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

雪大
二十午
十二正
六時    
分        
宜

安動入
牀土學
作上理
灶樑髮
鳴不鳥鶡 
天班水
火煞痕

 ———— 

Great Snow
At the wu hour; 12:26 o'clock
(the twenty-first of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Entering Study
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Stove Work

Copper Pheasant Silent
(the sixty-first of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Water Scar
Classified Balefulness
Heavenly Fire

 ————

白 林

White, Copse
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

房
門 牀

Edifice

Gate, Bed