China's Lunar Calendar 2019 03-26

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/28....................................................................................................................3/20

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
六

二期星

Third Month, Twenty-Sixth Day
Tuesday, March 26

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Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

金六吉
堂合神
Auspicious Spirits
Six Linkages
Golden Hall

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

亥未卯
吉吉吉

23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00 In-Between
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
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 Auspicious

 ————

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

忌
修放開
倉水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Repairing Granaries

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

二
十
壬
戌

水
室
危

Twentieth Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renxu (59/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Room (12/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

安裁會
牀衣友
作移出
灶徙行
捕開訂
捉市婚
納交納
畜易裁
聲發乃雷
犬下月
口兀煞
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Seizing and Capturing
Livestock Payments

Thunder Reverberates
(the eleventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Lunar Balefulness
Lower Amputee
Canine Orifice

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

人

Person

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

倉
栖 庫

Granary
Perch, Storehouse

————