China's Lunar Calendar 2020 02-29

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/7.........................................................................................................2/28

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
廿
九
六期星

Second Month, Twenty-Ninth Day 
Saturday, February 29

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十歲
靈馬
Generational Equinity
Ten Spirits

————

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

亥未卯
中吉吉

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
祭開
祀渠

Opening Sluices
Venerating Ancestors

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
七
壬
寅

金
胃
建

Seventh Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renyin (39/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Stomach (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

交會

易友

上訂

梁婚

安納

葬采

草

木

萌

動

土水

府痕

————

Appropriate Activities
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Trade and Commerce
Raising Beams
Positioning Graves

Grasses and Trees Come to Life 
(the sixth of seventy-two five-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Water Scar
Soil Palace

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

White, Heaven

 ————

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