China's Lunar Calendar 2019 11-08

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/9...........................................................................................................11/02

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
八
日
五期星

Eleventh Month, Eighth Day 
Friday, November 8

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

進生德歲
神氣合月
Generational Lunarity
Exemplary Linkage
Engendered Vapor
Entering Spirits

————

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

亥未卯
凶吉凶

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
田伐進新
獵木水船

New Boats
Entering Water
Felling Timber
Field Venery

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
二
己
酉
土

婁
開

Twelfth Day (Tenth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiyou (46/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Mound (16/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)*
*Occasionally, the "Day Personality" cycle repeats, as it does today.

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
冬立
十一丑
四時初
分二   
宜

上開嫁祭
樑市娶祀
置動移出
產土徙行
冰始水
灾班雞水
煞煞口痕
————

Beginning of Winter
At the beginning of the chou hour; 1:24 a.m.
(the nineteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about) 
Marriage Alliances
Moving Residences
Raising Beams
Setting-up Production

Water Begins to Freeze
(the fifty-fifth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)


Baleful Astral Influences

Water Scar
Chicken Orifice
Classified Balefulness
Calamitous Balefulness

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

White, Copse

 ————

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)

門  大 占

Gate, Great, Divination