China's Lunar Calendar 2015 09-23

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/26...................................................................................................................9/18

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

三期星

Ninth Month, Twenty-Third Day

Astral Period Three
Wednesday, September 23

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十解四
靈神相
Four Facings
Releasing Spirits
Ten Spirits

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

中中凶
戌午寅
吉中吉

亥未卯
中吉凶

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
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
祈祭開
福祀渠
Opening Sluices
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

十
一
壬
寅
金
參
執
Eleventh Day (Eighth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renyin (43960)

Phase (element): Metal

Constellation: Mix (Orion) (21/28)

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

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

分秋
廿十申
一六    
分時正
 ————
宜

栽理出
種髮行
安安會
髒門友
聲收始雷
歸水債
忌痕不

————
Autumn Equinox
In the shen hour; 16:21 o'clock
(the sixteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day periods on the agricultural calendar)


Appropriate Activities
Going Out (and about)

Meeting Friends

Patterning Hair

Positioning Gates

Planting and Cultivating

Positioning Graves

Thunder Pipes Down
(the forty-sixth of seventy-two five-day micro-periods on the solar calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences
Debt Not
Water Scar
Return Taboo

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

人 地
Person, Earth

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous

倉

爐 庫

Granary
Furnace, Storehouse