China's Lunar Calendar 2016 01-06

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/9............................................................................................................1/2/2016

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 calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar 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.

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
六
日

三期星

First Month, Sixth Day

Astral Period Three
Wednesday, January 6

———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生時陰
氣陽德

Yin Virtue
Timely Yang
Engendered Vapor

—————————————————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
中中中
酉己丑
吉凶凶

戌午寅
吉吉吉

亥未卯
吉凶凶

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

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

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

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.
                             —————————————————

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

忌
除嫁理
服娶髮
Patterning Hair
Marriage Alliances
Discarding Clothing

—————————————————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
七
丁
亥
土
壁
開
Twenty-Seventh Day Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dinghai (24/60)

Phase (element): Earth
Constellation: Eastern Wall (14/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12) 

————————————————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)

寒小
零六卯
八時正
分       
————

宜
安納祭
門采祀
作掃入
灶舍學
鄉北雁
重債小
日不兀

————
Small Cold
In the mao hour; 6:08 o'clock
(the twenty-third of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar) 

Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Entering Study

Grain Payments

Sweeping Floors

Positioning Gates

Trade and Commerce

  
Wild Geese Return to Northern Homes
(the sixty-seventh of seventy-two five day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee
Debt Not
Doubled Days

 ———— 

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白 人

Bifurcation, Person
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

倉

牀 庫

Granary
Bed, Storehouse