China's Lunar Calendar 2019 05-21

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/25...............................................................................................................5/18

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
廿
一

二期星

Fifth Month, Twenty-First Day
Tuesday, May 21

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十官歲
靈日祿
Generational Emolument
Official Days
Ten Spirits

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

亥未卯
凶吉吉

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

 ————

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

忌
苫置買
蓋業田

Buying Land
Setting-up Industry
Thatched Coverings

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
七
戊
午
火
室
除

Seventeenth Day (Fourth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: wuwu (55/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Room (14/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (3/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
滿小
五十申
十五初
 九時    
 分        

宜

上開出
樑市行
安動理
葬土髮
秀菜苦
陽大咸
將敗池
 ————

Grain in Full
At the beginning of the shen hour; 15:59 o'clock

(the eighth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Going Out (and about)
Patterning Hair
Opening Markets
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Graves

Bitter Herb Grows Tall
(the twenty-second of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Widespread Pond
Utter Defeat
Yang General

Section Seven
白

White

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

房
碓 牀

Edifice
Pestle, Bed