China's Lunar Calendar 2018 03-10

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/16.....................................................................................................................3/9

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
日

六期星

Third Month, Tenth Day 
Saturday, March 10

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生時天敬
氣陽倉安

Reverential Calm
Heavenly Granary
Timely Yang
Engendered Vapor

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉凶中
酉己丑
凶吉吉
戌午寅

中吉吉
亥未卯
吉凶吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
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
除動造合
服土酒醬

Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Moving Soil
Discarding Clothing

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
三
辛

丑

土
柳
開

Twenty-Third Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinchou (38/60)

Phase (element): Earth
Constellation: Willow (24/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

安醫出祭
門病行祀
作理訂祈
灶髮婚福
置修裁入
產造衣學
納上移會
畜樑徙友
明庚倉
復地寡月
喪囊宿忌

————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Households
Physician Treatments
Patterning Hair
Repairing and Constructing
Raising Beams
Positioning Gates
Stove Work
Setting-up Production
Livestock Payments 

Golden Orioles Sing
(the eighth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Lunar Taboo
Orphan Hostel
Earth Duffel
Repeat Mourning
 
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
白 林

White, Copse
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

厠 灶 廚

Toilet, Stove, Kitchen