China's Lunar Calendar 2020 01-20

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/24..............................................................................................................1/17

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
二
十
一期星

First Month, Twentieth Day 
Monday, January 20

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

青聖
龍心
Sagely Heart-Mind
Blue-Green Dragon

————

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

亥未卯
吉凶吉

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

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
9:00-11:00 Inauspicious
11:00-13:00 In-Between
13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

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

 ————

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

忌
放開
水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
六
壬
戌

水
心
收
Twenty-Fifth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renxu (59/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Heart-Mind (5/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Receive (10/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
大
寒
五亥
十正
五廿
分二
    時
宜
祀祭
鶏
乳
上五
兀虛

————

Great Cold
Precisely at the zheng hour; 22:55 o'clock
(the twenty-fourth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors 

Pheasant Hens Brood
(the seventieth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Five Voids
Upper Amputee

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

Bifurcation, Ghost

 ————

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)

倉
栖 庫

Granary
Perch, Storehouse