China's Lunar Calendar 2019 01-17

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/19/19.....................................................................................................1/11/19

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
七

四期星

First Month, Seventeenth Day  
Thursday, January 17

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

金時四
匱德相
Four Facings
Timely Exemplarity
Golden Cupboard

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

亥未卯
中凶中

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

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
祈祭開
福祀倉

Opening Granaries
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
二
甲
申
水
角
除

Twelfth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiashen (51/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Horn (1/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

事用王土
宜
動理會

土髮友

上掃訂

樑舎婚

安交移

葬易徙

將陰
劫五孤

煞虛辰

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair
Sweeping Rooms
Trade and Commerce
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Graves

Yin General

Baleful Asterisms

Orphan Dawn
Five Voids
Plundered Balefulness

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白

White

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities
占
爐 門

Divination
Furnace, Gate