China's Lunar Calendar 2019 01-01

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/5/19.......................................................1/1/19.....................................12/29

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
一二

月領
一九
日年

二期星

First Month, First Day  
Tuesday, January 1

————
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生時歲
氣陽德
Generational Exemplarity
 Timely Yang
Engendered Vapor

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

亥未卯
中吉吉

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 In-Between
11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

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
補置買
塞業田

Buying Land

Setting-up Industry

Patching and Plugging

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
六
戊
戌
木
室
開

Twenty-Sixth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: wuxu (35/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Room (13/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

動訂祭
土婚祀
上裁祈
梁衣福
安理入
門髮學
作開 會
灶市友
動泉水
俱五下
將虛兀

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Entering Study

Meeting Friends

Marriage Alliances

Cutting-out Clothing

Opening Markets

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Positioning Beds

Stove Work

Spring Waters Move
(the sixty-sixth of seventy-two five-day micro-periods on the solar calendars)

Baleful Asterisms

Lower Amputee
Five Vacancies
Everything General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

丫 火

Bifurcation, Fire

 ————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

房
栖 牀

Edifice
Perch, Bed