China's Lunar Calendar 2019 06-12

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
6/16...............................................................................................................6/8

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
二

三期星

Sixth Month, Twelfth Day
Wednesday, June 12

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

德歲生時
日支氣德
Timely Exemplarity
Engendered Vapor
Generational Branch
Exemplary Days

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

亥未卯
吉吉中

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

07:00-09:00 Auspicious
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 In-Between
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
21:00-23:00 Auspicious

 ————

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

忌
塞補伐結
穴垣木網

Binding Nets
Felling Timber
Patching Embankments
Plugging Caves

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
十
庚
辰
金
箕
開

Tenth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengchen (17/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Winnowing Basket (7/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

穿醫出祭
經病行祀
安修嫁祈
門造娶福
作動納入
灶土采學
置上移會
產樑徙友
虛五
俱九寡無
將空宿祿
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences 
Physician Treatments
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Boring Wells
Positioning Gates
Stove Work
Setting-up Industry

Five Voids

Baleful Astral Influences

Without Emolument
Orphan Hostel
Nine Vacancies
Everything General

Section Seven
人

Person

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

栖 磨 碓

Perch, Mortar, Pestle