China's Lunar Calendar 2015 07-23

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/27................................................................................................................7/21

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 calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar 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.

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
廿
三

四期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Third Day

Astral Period Four
Thursday, July 23

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

德歲歲
日支德
Generational Virtue
Generational Branch
Virtuous Days

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Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉中凶
酉己丑

吉中凶

戌午寅
凶凶中
亥未卯
中吉中

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

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

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

The hours above are for Hong Kong. It is up to you if you want to recalibrate or to assume that the cyclicality of the calendar "covers" the rest of the world. This is a greater interpretive challenge than you might think.
                             —————————————————

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

忌
補問結
塞卜網
Binding Nets
Asking-about Future
Patching and Plugging

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

初
八
庚
子
土
奎
執

Eighth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengzi (37/60)

Phase (element): Earth

Constellation: Astride (15/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

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Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)

暑大
 三十午
十一   
分時初
————
伏中
————
宜

安理出
葬髮行
————
螢為草腐
————
歸咸上
忌池兀

————
Great Heat
At the beginning of the wu hour; 11:30 AM
(the twelfth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Middle Prostration
(the second of three periods of intense heat in the summer)

Appropriate Activities
 Going Out (and about)
Patterning Hair
Positioning Graves

Rotted Weeds Turn Into Fireflies
(the thirty-fourth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee
Widespread Pond
Return Taboo

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
人 水
Person, Water

————

占

磨 碓

Divination
Mortar, Pestle