China's Lunar Calendar 2019 01-20

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/27..........................................................................................................1/20

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
二
十

日期星

First Month, Twentieth Day  
Sunday, January 20

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

三玉歲
合堂祿
Generational Emolument
Jade Hall
Three Linkages

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

亥未卯
凶凶凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between

17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

 ————

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

忌
除遠理
福行髮

Patterning Hair
Distant Journeys
Discarding Clothing

 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
五
丁
巳
土
房
定

Fifteenth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingsi (54/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Edifice (4/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
寒大
零十酉
零七初
分時   
宜
開裁祭
光衣祀
納合訂
畜帳婚
乳雞
死火重
祈行日

 ————

Great Cold
At the beginning of the you hour; 17:00 o'clock
(the twenty-fourth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Marriage Engagements
Cutting-out Clothing
Binding Sails
Consecrations and Blessings
Livestock Payments

Pheasant Hens Brood
(the seventieth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Doubled Days
Fire Star
Death Vapor

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

丫 林

Bifurcation, Copse

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities
倉
牀 庫

Granary
Bed, Storehouse