China's Lunar Calendar 2019 02-14

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
2/17............................................................................................................2/9

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
十
四

四期星

Second Month, Fourteenth Day
Thursday, February 14

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Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

時合天歲
德日德祿
Generational Emolument
Heavenly Exemplarity
Linked Days
Timely Exemplarity

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

亥未卯
吉吉吉

23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
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 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
搭苫放開
厠蓋水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Thatched Coverings
Erecting Toilets

 ————
 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
九
壬
午
木
角
定

Tenth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renwu (19/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Horn (1/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)

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Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
修交嫁祭
倉易娶祀
醞修納祈
釀造采福
成動移會
服土徙友
安上開出
葬樑市行
冰負陟魚
俱死白小
  將氣虎亡空
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Moving Residences

Opening Markets

Trade and Commerce

Repairing and Cultivating

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Repairing Granaries

Fermenting Beverages

Completing Clothing

Positioning Graves

Fish Swim Upstream, Breaking the Ice

(the third of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Small Loss-Void
White Tiger
Death Vapor
Everything General

————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

人 火

Person, Fire

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

碓 庫 倉

Pestle, Storehouse, Granary

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