China's Lunar Calendar 2019 01-25

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
廿
五

五期星

First Month, Twenty-Fifth Day  
Friday, January 25

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

聖天
心貴
Heavenly Nobility
Sagely Heart-Mind

————

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

亥未卯
吉凶吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
放開
水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water 
 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

二
十
壬
戌
水
牛
收

Twentieth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renxu (59/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Herdboy (9/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Receive (10/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
祭
祀
納
財
捕
捉
————
征
鳥
厲
疾
————
月五
刑虛

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Capital Outflow
Seizing and Capturing

Vulture Flies Stern and Swift
(the seventy-first of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Five Voids
Lunar Punishment

————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白 鬼

White, Ghost

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities
倉

栖 庫

Granary
Perch, Storehouse 
————