China's Lunar Calendar 2019 03-01

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/6............................................................................................................2/26

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
一三
日月

五期星

Third Month, First Day
Friday, March 1

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十陰天
靈德德
Heavenly Exemplarity
Yin Exemplarity
Ten Spirits

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
中吉中

亥未卯
吉吉凶

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

 ————

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

忌
田整理
獵甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nail
Field Venery

 ————
 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
五
丁

酉
火
婁
危

Twenty-Fifth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingmao (34/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Mound (16/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

動嫁祭
土娶祀
上納祈
樑裁福
安移入
牀徙學
安開出
葬市行
動萌木草 
陽上五
將兀虛
 ————

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

Grasses and Trees Sprout
(the sixth of seventy-two five-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Five Voids
Upper Amputee
Yang General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白 人

White, Person

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

門
庫 倉

Gate
Storehouse, Granary

————