China's Lunar Calendar 2018 12-22

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
12/28...........................................................................................................12/20

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
二

六期星

Twelfth Month, Twenty-Second Day  
Saturday, December 22

————
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

金官歲
匱日德

Lunar Exemplarity
Linked Days

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

亥未卯
中中吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
動置買
土業田

Buying Land
Setting-up Industry
Moving Soil

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
六
戊
子
火
氐
建

Sixteenth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: wuzi (25/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Foundation (3/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

節冬

至冬
三六卯
十時正
三       
分       
宜
穿垣修
井牆飾
結蚓蚯 
月土小
 厭府亡空

 ————

Winter Festival
Winter Arrives (Winter Solstice)
At the mao hour; 6:23 o'clock

Appropriate Activities
Repairing and Adorning Embankments and Walls
Boring Wells

Earthworms Twist
(the sixty-fourth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Small Loss-Void
Soil Palace
Lunar Repression

 ————

丫 鬼

Bifurcation, Ghost

 ————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

房

碓 牀

Edifice
Pestle, Bed