China's Lunar Calendar 2018 11-04

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/7............................................................................................................10/30

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
四
日

日期星

Eleventh Month, Fourth Day  
Sunday, November 4

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月時
恩德

Timely Exemplarity
Lunar Kindness

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

亥未卯
中吉中

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
問結
卜網

Binding Nets
Divinatory Inquiries

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
七
庚
子
土
虛
滿

Twenty-Seventh Day (Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengzi (37/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Void (12/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

作祭
倉祀
針入
灸學
成理
服髮
除沐
服浴
債
不
陽歸
將忌

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Entering Study
Patterning Hair
Bubbling and Bathing
Granary Work
Acupuncture and Moxibustion
Completing Clothing
Discarding Clothing

Debt Not

Baleful Asterisms

Return Taboo
Yang General

 ————

Section Seven

丫 地

Bifurcation, Earth
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
占
磨 碓

Divination
Mortar, Pestle