China's Lunar Calendar 2015 09-08

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/12..................................................................................................................9/4

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
八
日

二期星

Ninth Month, Eighth Day

Astral Period Two
Sunday, September 8

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

相三歲
日合支
Generational Branch
Three Linkages
Facing Days

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

吉凶凶
戌午寅
吉吉吉

亥未卯
吉吉凶

23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00 Inauspicious
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 Auspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

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

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
除嫁理
服娶髮
Patterning Hair
Marriage Alliances
Discarding Clothing

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
六
丁
亥
土
尾
滿
Twenty-Sixth Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dinghai (24/60)

Phase (element): Earth

Constellation: Tail (6/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)*
*Occasionally (as happens today) a "day personality repeats.

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

露白
零七辰
分時初
宜

動移祭
土徙祀
作開出
灶市行
來雁鴻
俱五重
將虛日

————
White Dew
(the fifteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors

Going Out (and about)

Moving Households

Opening Markets

Moving Soil

Stove Work

Wild Geese Arrive
(the forty-third of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Doubled Days
Five Voids
Everything General

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
丫

Bifurcation

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Section Eight

Miscellaneous

倉
牀 庫

Granary

Bed, Storehouse