China's Lunar Calendar 2020 12-07

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
12/14.......................................................................................................................12/7

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

(top to bottom, right to left)

七

日

一期星

Twelfth Month, Seventh Day
Monday, December 7
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天三歲歲

喜合支祿

Generational Emolument

Generational Branch

Three Linkages

Heavenly Happiness

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰甲

吉吉吉

酉巳丑

吉吉吉

戌午寅

中凶凶

亥未卯

中吉中

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

1:00-3:00 Auspicious

3:00-5:00 Inauspicious

5:00-7:00 In-Between

7:00-9:00 Auspicious

9:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious

13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
動安出開

土牀財倉

Opening Granaries

Capital Outflow

Positioning Beds

Moving Soil

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿

三

甲

申

水

畢

成

Twenty-Third Day (Tenth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: jiashen (21/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Net (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)*

*Occasionally, a "day personality" repeats, as it does today.

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

雪大

零零子

九時正

分       

宜

成開嫁祭

服市娶祀

安上移出

葬樑徙行

鳴不旦鶡

土月水楊

符忌痕忌

Great Snow

Precisely at the zi hour; 12:09 a.m.

(the twenty-first of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Moving Residences

Opening Markets

Raising Beams

Completing Clothing

Positioning Graves

Copper Pheasants Go Quiet

(the sixty-first of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Poplar Taboo

Water Scar

Lunar Taboo

Soil Charm

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

Person Earth
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation is under the bottom of each character)

盧 門 占

Furnace, Gate, Divination