China's Lunar Calendar 2020 04-17

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/22..................................................................................................................4/15

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
七
五期星

Fourth Month, Seventeenth Day 
Friday, April 17

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十生歲歲
靈氣馬德
Generational Exemplarity
Generational Equinity
Engendered Vapor
Ten Spirits

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

亥未卯
中吉吉

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

07:00-09:00 Auspicious
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 Inauspicious
21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
作祈祭結
灶福祀網

Binding Nets
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Stove Work

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
五
庚
寅

木
牛
開

Twenty-Fifth Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengyin (27/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Oxen (9/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
事用王土
————
宜

 上開訂入
梁市婚學
安交納會
牀易采友
置動移出
產土徙行
星火
血招厭虎
忌搖對口

————

Earth King Use Affairs
(a division of the solar year into five periods of seventy-two days)

Appropriate Activities

 Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Setting-up Production

Fire Asterism

Baleful Astral Influences

Tiger Orifice
Mutual Repression
Rollicking Braggadocio
Blood Taboo

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)

爐 磨 碓

Furnace, Mortar, Pestle