China's Lunar Calendar 2019 10-14

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
10/19.................................................................................................................10/12

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
四
一期星

Tenth Month, Fourteenth Day 
Monday, October 14

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生時驛歲
氣陽馬德
Generational Exemplarity
Postal Horse
Timely Yang
Engendered Vapor

————

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

亥未卯
中吉中

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

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

 ————

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

忌
裁安出開
衣牀財倉

Opening Granaries
Capital Outflow
Positioning Beds
Cutting-out Clothing

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
六
甲
申
水
畢

開

Sixteenth Day (Ninth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiashen (21/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Net (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
置交移祭

產易徙祀

開修理祈

渠造髮福

作動醫入

灶土病學

裁上開出

種樑市行

行短

招厭五四

 搖對離祥不

 ————

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Going Out (and about)
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair
Treating Illness
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Setting-up Production
Opening Sluices
Stove Work 
Planting and Cultivating

Short Star

Baleful Astral Influences

Four Fortune-Nots
Five Separations
Mutual Resentment
Rollicking Braggadocio

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
丫

Bifurcation

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation for is under the bottom characters)

爐 門 占

Furnace, Gate, Divination