China's Lunar Calendar 2019 11-18

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/25...........................................................................................................11/18

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
八
一期星

Eleventh Month, Eighteenth Day 
Monday, November 18

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天天德歲
醫喜合月
Generational Lunarity
Exemplary Linkage
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician

————

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

亥未卯
凶吉吉

23:00-01:00 In-Between
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 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
娶田作修
魚獵灶廚

Repairing Kitchens
Stove Work
Field Venery (Hunting)
Garnering Piscinity (Fishing)

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
二
己

未
火
張
成

Twenty-Second Day (Tenth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiwei (56/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Drawn Bow (26/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

修交訂祭
倉易婚祀
醞修裁祈
釀造衣福
納動開入
畜土市學
安上立會
葬樑約友
蜃為水大入雉
厭四火上
對擊星兀
————

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Entering Study

Meeting Friends

Marriage Engagements

Cutting-out Clothing (Tailoring)

Opening Markets

Making Appointments

Trade and Commerce

Repairing and Cultivating

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Repairing Granaries

Fermenting Beverages

Livestock Payments

Positioning Graves

Pheasants Enter Vast Waters and Become Clams
(the fifty-seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)


Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee
Fire Asterism
Four Fisticuffs
Mutual Resentment

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

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)

厠 門 占

Toilet, Gate, Divination