China's Lunar Calendar 2020 01-30

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
2/5..........................................................................................................1/29

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
三
十
四期星

First Month, Thirtieth Day 
Thursday, January 30

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

陽五母
德富倉
Maternal Granary
Five Abundances
Yang Exemplarity

————

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

亥未卯
中凶吉

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

07:00-09:00 Auspicious
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 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
安放開
牀水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Positioning Beds

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
六
壬
申

金
奎
危

Sixth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renshen (9/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Astride (15/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
栽移祭
種居祀
納開祈
畜市福
除交沐
服易浴
安開理
葬倉髮
堅腹澤水
火下大
星兀亡空

————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Bubbling and Bathing
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Opening Granaries
Planting and Cultivating
Livestock Payments
Discarding Clothing
Positioning Graves

Streams and Marshes Freeze Solid
(the seventy-second, and final, of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Great Loss-Void
Lower Amputee
Fire Asterism

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

White, Fire

 ————

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
爐 庫

Granary
Furnace, Storehouse