China's Lunar Calendar 2019 06-21

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
6/24...............................................................................................................6/17

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

五期星

Sixth Month, Twenty-First Day
Friday, June 21

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

陰合歲
德日德
Generational Exemplarity
Linked Days
Yin Exemplarity

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

亥未卯
凶凶吉

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

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
補栽修
塞種倉

Repairing Granaries
Planting and Cultivating
Patching and Plugging

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
九
己
丑
火
婁
危

Nineteenth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jichou (26/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Mound (16/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
至夏
五廿子
十三初
四時   
分      
宜

安修祭
牀造祀
結動訂
網土婚
解角鹿
俱月債
將煞不
 ————

Summer Arrives (Summer Solstice)
At the beginning of the zi hour; 23:54 p.m.
(the tenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)


Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Marriage Engagements
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Positioning Beds
Binding Nets 

Deer Shed Their Antlers

(the twenty-eighth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Lunar Destruction
Everything General

Section Seven
白 人

White, Person

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

占
厠 門

Divination
Toilet, Gate