China's Lunar Calendar 2020 11-17

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/19...............................................................11/15.....................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

十
七

二期星

Eleventh Month, Seventeenth Day
Tuesday, November 17
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

進天天月

神馬赦德

Lunar Exemplarity

Heavenly Amnesty

Heavenly Equinity

Entering Spirits

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉吉吉

酉巳丑
中凶吉

戌午寅
中凶吉

亥未卯

中吉中

23:00-01:00 Auspicious

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

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

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
 13:00-15:00 Auspicious

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
作問出開

灶卜財倉

Opening Granaries

Capital Outflow

Divinatory Inquiries

Stove Work

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
三

甲
子

金

翌

除

Third Day (Tenth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: jiazi (1/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Wings (27/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

宜

上理訂祭

梁髮婚祀

安醫納祈

牀病采福

栽修嫁會

種造娶友

安動移出

葬土徙行

蜃為水大入雞野

俱咸債下

將池不午

————

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Inquiring-into Fortune

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Engagements

Grain Payments

Marriage Alliances

Moving Soil

Patterning Hair

Physician Treatments

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Positioning Beds

Planting and Cultivating

Positioning Graves

Pheasants Plunge into Water, Transforming into Giant Clams

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

Baleful Astral Influences

Lower Amputee

Debt Not

Widespread Pond

Everything General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
白 火

White, Fire
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation is under the bottom of each character)

碓 門 占

Pestle, Gate, Divination