China's Lunar Calendar 2019 11-14

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/17...........................................................................................................11/10

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
四期星

Eleventh Month, Fourteenth Day 
Thursday, November 14

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

三歲月天
合支恩德
Heavenly Exemplarity
Lunar Kindness
Generational Branch
Three Linkages

————

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

亥未卯
吉吉吉

23:00-01:00 Auspicious
01:00-03:00 In-Between
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 Auspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
開穿時載
池井插種

Planting and Cultivation
Timely Injections
Boring Wells
Opening Markets

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
八
乙
卯
水
井
定

Eighteenth Day (Tenth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: yimao (52/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Well (22/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

倉修訂祭

出造婚祀

貨動納祈

財土采福

納上嫁會

畜樑娶友

安修移出

葬開徙行

不債
陰兔下死
將口兀氣
————

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances 
Moving Residences
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing...*
Opening Granaries
Capital and Commodity Outflow**
Livestock Payments
Positioning Graves 
*For the rest of this section, the order of characters is a mess, and clearly seems to be mistaken. 
**This combination appears to be mistaken, as well.

Debt Not

Baleful Astral Influences

Death Vapor
Lower Amputee
Rabbit Orifice
Yin General

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

White, Person

 ————

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 磨 碓

Gate, Mortar, Pestle