China's Lunar Calendar 2020 03-15

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/15..........................................................................................................3/8

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
五
日期星

Third Month, Fifteenth Day 
Sunday, March 15

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月德歲
恩日支
Generational Branch
Exemplary Days
Lunar Kindness

————

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

亥未卯
凶吉凶

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
動遠理
土行髮

Patterning Hair

Distant Journeys

Moving Soil

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
二
丁
巳

土
房
滿

Twenty-Second Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingsi (54/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Edifice (4/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

上納祭
梁采祀
安裁祈
牀衣福
補開會
塞市友
牧交訂
養易婚
鳩為化鷹
土朱重
符雀日

————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Meeting Friends

Marriage Engagements

Grain Payments

Cutting-out Clothing

Opening Markets

Trade and Commerce

Raising Beams

Positioning Beds

Patching and Plugging

Raising Livestock

Hawks Transform Into Doves
(the ninth of seventy-two five day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)


Baleful Astral Influences

Doubled Days
Vermilion Bird
Soil Charm

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

Person, Mountain

 ————

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
牀 庫

Granary

Bed, Storehouse