China's Lunar Calendar 2016 08-07

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/7......................................................8/3........Monthly Calendar Information

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
七
日

日期星

Eighth Month, Seventh Day

Astral Period Sun
Sunday, August 7

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天吉合歲
貴期日德 

Generational Virtue
Linked Days
Auspicious Temporality
Heavenly Nobility 

————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
中吉中
酉己丑
凶吉凶
戌午寅 

中吉凶 
亥未卯
中中凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
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
取田造合
魚獵酒醬
Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Field Venery
Garnering Piscinity 

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

初
五
辛
酉
木
房
除
Fifth Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinyou (58/60)

Phase (element): Wood
Constellation: Edifice (4/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)*
*A "personality" character occasionally repeats on the following day (as it does today).

————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information  
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
秋立
三五九巳

分十時初

————
宜
成上掃祭

服樑舍祀

安作動理

葬灶土髮
至風涼
陰咸五月
將池離忌
————

Beginning of Autumn
 At the beginning of the si hour; 9:53 o'clock
(The thirteenth of twenty-four fifteen day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Patterning Hair
Sweeping Rooms
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Stove Work
Completing Clothing
Positioning Beds  

Cooling Winds Arrive
(the thirty-seventh of seventy-two five-day micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Lunar Taboo
Five Separations
Widespread Pond
Yin General
————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
丫 人

Bifurcation, Person
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

門 灶 廚

Gate, Stove, Kitchen