China's Lunar Calendar 2019 04-18

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/25.............................................................................................................4/18

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
八

四期星

Fourth Month, Eighteenth Day
Thursday, April 18

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不寶六
將光合
Six Linkages
Precious Rays
Not General

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

亥未卯
中中凶

23:00-01:00 Auspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Inauspicious

07:00-09:00 Auspicious
9:00-11:00 Inauspicious
11:00-13:00 In-Between
13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
修動栽
倉土種

Planting and Cultivating
Moving Soil
Repairing Granaries

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
四
乙
酉
水
斗
執

Fourteenth Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: yiyou (22/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Southern Dipper (8/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
事用王土
 ————
宜

上納祭
樑采祀
安移出
牀徙行
安開嫁
葬市娶
池咸
土五月
符虛忌
 ————

Soil King Use Matters
(One of the agricultural calendar's ways of dividing the year, this time into five seventy-two day periods)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Positioning Graves

Widespread Pond

Baleful Astral Influences

Lunar Taboo
Five Voids
Soil Charm

Section Seven
白

White

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

碓
門 磨

Pestle
Gate, Mortar

————