China's Lunar Calendar 2019 02-04

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
2/4..........................................................................................................1/28

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
四
日

一期星

Second Month, Fourth Day
Monday, February 4

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Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

鳳歲
凰馬
Generational Horse
Phoenix

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

亥未卯
中吉吉

23:00-01:00 Auspicious
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 In-Between
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

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
安開
牀渠

Opening Sluices
Positioning Beds

 ————
 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

三
十
壬
申
金
畢
破

Thirtieth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renshen (9/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Net (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Destroy (7/12)*
*Occasionally (as today) the calendar repeats a "day personality."

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Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
立
春
十十午
四一初
分時    
宜
屋破
動

風

解

凍
水月
痕破
 ————

Beginning of Spring
At the beginning of the wu hour; 13:14 o'clock
(the first of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Destroying Rooms

East Wind Melts the Ice
(the first of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Lunar Destruction
Water Scar

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Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白 鬼

White, Ghost

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

倉
爐 庫

Granary

Furnace, Storehouse 
————