China's Lunar Calendar 2018 10-28

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
10/29............................................................................................................10/21

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
廿
八

日期星

Tenth Month, Twenty-Eighth Day  
Sunday, October 28

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

歲合歲
祿日德

Generational Virtue
Linked Days
Generational Emolument

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

亥未卯
凶凶吉

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

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
9:00-11:00 Auspicious
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 Auspicious
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

 ————

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

忌
除遠詞
服行訟

Lawsuits and Litigation
Distant Ramblings
Discarding Clothing

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

二
十
癸
巳
水
房
危

Twentieth Day (Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: guisi (30/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Edifice (5/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

上嫁祭
樑娶祀
安裁會
牀衣友
栽移訂
種徙婚
牧動納
養土采
落黃木草 
血重上
忌日兀

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marraige Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Residences
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds 
Planting and Cultivating
Raising Livestock 

Leaves Turn Yellow and Fall
(the fifty-third of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Upper Amputee
Doubled Days
Blood Taboo

 ————

Section Seven

白 人

White, Person
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

占
牀 房

Divination
Bed, Edifice