China's Lunar Calendar 2020 04-19

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
九
日期星

Fourth Month, Nineteenth Day 
Sunday, April 19

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

青月天
龍德德
Heavenly Exemplarity
Lunar Exemplarity
Blue-Green Dragon

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

亥未卯
吉中吉

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  Auspicious
11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
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
行動開
喪土渠

Opening Sluices
Moving Soil
Mourning Visits

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
七
壬
辰

水
虛
建

Twenty-Seventh Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renchen (29/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Void (11/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
雨穀
四廿亥
十二正
五時    
分       
宜

 安理出
牀髮行
安建裁
葬屋衣
生始萍
三土債
喪府不

————

Corn Rain
Precisely at the hai hour; 22:45 o'clock.
(the sixth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

 Going Out (and about)
Cutting-out Clothing
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Establishing Rooms
Positioning Beds
Positioning Graves

Floating Weeds Appear
(the sixteenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Soil Palace
Three Mournings

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

Bifurcation, Ghost

 ————

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
栖 庫

Granary
Perch, Storehouse