China's Lunar Calendar 2019 03-06

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
六
日

三期星

Third Month, Sixth Day
Wednesday, March 6

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

六歲十
合支靈
Ten Spirits
Generational Branch
Six Linkages

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

亥未卯
中吉吉

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 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
祭放開
祀水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Venerating Ancestors

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

三
十
壬

寅
金
參
閉

Thirtieth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renyin (39/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Gathering (21/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Closed (12/12)*
*Occasionally, a "day personality" repeats, as it does today.

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
蟄驚
十五卯
分時初

宜

除動裁
服土衣
安上交
葬樑易
華始桃
陰歸水
將忌痕
 ————

Waking of Insects
In the mao hour; 5:10 a.m.
(the third of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Cutting-out Clothing
Trade and Commerce
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Discarding Clothing
Positioning Graves

Peach Blossoms Open
(the seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Water Scar
Return Taboo
Yin General

 ————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白 地

White, Earth

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

倉
爐 庫

Granary
Furnace, Storehouse

————