China's Lunar Calendar 2020 04-14

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/14..................................................................................................................4/6

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
四
二期星

Fourth Month, Fourteenth Day 
Tuesday, April 14

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不德天
將合月
Heavenly Lunarity
Exemplary Linkage
Not General

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

亥未卯
吉吉凶

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
除嫁理
服娶髮

Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Marriage Alliances
Discarding Clothing

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
二
丁
亥

土
尾
危

Twenty-Second Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dinghai (24/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Tail (6/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

上裁祭
梁衣祀
安移會
牀徙友
栽修赴
種造任
納動納
畜土采
見始虹
天重下
賊日兀

————

Appropriate Activities

 Venerating Ancestors
Meeting Friends
Taking-up Office
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Residences
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Planting and Cultivating
Livestock Payments

Rainbows Begin to Appear
(the fifteenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Lower Amputee
Doubled Days
Heavenly Thief

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

Person, Copse

 ————

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