China's Lunar Calendar 2019 02-24

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
2/25............................................................................................................2/18

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
四

日期星

Second Month, Twenty-Fourth Day
Sunday, February 24

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Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

德歲金
日支堂
Golden Hall
Generational Branch
Exemplary Days

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

亥未卯
吉中吉

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 In-Between
9:00-11:00 Inauspicious
11:00-13:00 In-Between
13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
行放開
喪水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Mourning Visits

 ————
 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

二
十
壬

辰
水
虛
滿

Twentieth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renchen (29/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Void (11/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
動嫁祭
土娶祀
上納祈
樑采福
納移會
畜徙友
安開出
葬市行
來鴈鴻
三厭火
喪對星
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Livestock Payments
Positioning Graves

Wild Geese Head North
(the fifth of seventy-two five day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Fire Star
Mutual Repression
Three Mournings

————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白 地

White, Earth

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

倉
栖 庫 

Granary
Perch, Storehouse

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