China's Lunar Calendar 2019 01-05

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
五
日

六期星

First Month, Fifth Day  
Saturday, January 5

————
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不十時月
將靈德德
Lunar Exemplarity
Timely Exemplarity
Ten Spirits
Not General

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

亥未卯
中吉吉

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

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

 ————

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

忌
祈祭穿開
福祀井渠

Opening Sluices
Boring Wells
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
 

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

三
十
壬
寅
金
胃
滿

Thirtieth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renyin (39/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Stomach (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

寒小
三二子
十十初
九三   
分時   
宜

安動裁出
牀土衣行
安上開嫁
葬樑市娶
鄉北雁
歸五水上
忌戌痕兀

 ————

Slight Cold
At the beginning of the zi hour;
23:39 o'clock 

Appropriate Activities
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Opening Markets
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Positioning Graves

Wild Geese Return to Northern Home
(the sixty-seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Upper Amputee
Water Scar
Five Vacancies
Return Taboo

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白 水

White, Water

 ————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

爐 庫 倉

Furnace, Storehouse, Granary