China's Lunar Calendar 2018 11-16

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/20...............................................................................................................11/13

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
六

五期星

Eleventh Month, Sixteenth Day  
Friday, November 16

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天天吉官
恩貴期日

Official Days
Auspicious Temporal-Slice
Heavenly Nobility
Heavenly Kindness

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
凶凶吉
酉巳丑
中凶吉
戌午寅
中凶吉

亥未卯
中吉吉

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


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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

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
成除放開
服靈水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Discarding Spirits
Completing Clothign

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
九
壬
子
木
鬼
除

Ninth Day (Tenth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renzi (49/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Ghost (24/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

安動開出
牀土市行
入上交理
倉樑易髮
栽安納掃
種門財舎
納作修醫
畜灶造病
喪重
陽復咸下
將日池兀

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Going Out (and about)
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Sweeping Rooms
Physician Visits
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Capital Outflow
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Gates
Stove Work
Positioning Beds
Entering Granaries
Planting and Cultivating
Livestock Payments

Repeat Mourning

Baleful Asterisms

Lower Amputee
Widespread Pond
Repeated Days
Yang General

 ————

人 火

Person, Fire
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

碓 庫 倉

Pestle, Storehouse, Granary