China's Lunar Calendar 2018 12-05

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
12/6...............................................................................................................11/29

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
五
日

三期星

Twelfth Month, Fifth Day  
Wednesday, December 5

————
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天天三麒
醫喜合麟

Phoenix
Three Linkages
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician

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

亥未卯
中中吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
娶田造合
魚獵酒醬

Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Field Venery
Garnering Piscinity

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
八
辛
未
土
壁
成

Twenty-Eighth Day (Tenth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinwei (8/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Eastern Wall (14/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

上交訂祭
樑易婚祀
作納納祈
灶財采福
納修嫁入
畜造娶學
安動開會
葬土市友
對厭 
往招四四
 亡搖祥不擊

 ———— 

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements

Grain Payments

Marriage Alliances

Opening Markets

Trade and Commerce

Capital Outflow

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Stove Work

Livestock Payments

Positioning Graves

Mutual Repression

Baleful Asterisms

Four Fisticuffs
Four Abandon-Nots
Rollicking Braggadocio
Toward Demise

 ————

白

White
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

廚 灶 厠

Kitchen, Stove, Toilet