China's Lunar Calendar 2019 03-31

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/4....................................................................................................................3/29

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
卅
一

日期星

Third Month, Thirty-first Day
Sunday, March 31

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Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月官四鳳
恩日相凰
Phoenix
Four Pillars
Official Days
Lunar Kindness

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

亥未卯
吉吉凶

23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00 In-Between
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
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 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 Auspicious

 ————

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

忌
動穿整理
土井甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Boring Wells
Moving Soil

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
五
丁
卯

火
昂
建

Twenty-Fifth Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingmao (4/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Pleiades (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

上移出祭
樑徙行祀
開醫訂祈
倉病婚福
出立納求
財約采嗣
牧交裁會
養易衣友
電始
厭土密小
 對府日亡空
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Seeking Inheritance
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Residences
Physician Visits
Making Appointments 
Trade and Commerce
Raising Beams
Opening Granaries
Capital Outflow
Tending Livestock

First Lightning
(the twelfth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

 
Baleful Astral Influences

Small Loss-Void

Mysterious Days

Soil Palace

Mutual Repression

Section Seven
丫 神

Bifurcation, Spirit

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

庫 倉 門

Storehouse, Granary, Gate

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