China's Lunar Calendar 2016 08-23

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/23...............................................................................................................8/16

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

Eighth Month, Twenty-Third Day

Astral Period Two
Tuesday, August 23

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

明德歲
堂日支
Generational Branch
Virtuous Days
Hall of Luminosity

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

中吉凶
亥未卯
吉凶凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
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.
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Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
取整理
魚甲髮
Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Garnering Piscinity

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
一
丁
丑
水
觜
執
Twenty-First Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingchou (14/60)

Phase (element): Water
Constellation: Beak of the Turtle (20/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

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

暑

卅零子

八時正

分        

————

宜

動嫁會
土娶友
安納出
鳥祭乃鷹
俱歸牛
將忌口
————

Stopping of Heat
(precisely in the zi hour: 12:38 a.m.)
(the fourteenth of twenty-four fifteen day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Soil
Positioning Graves

Raptor Sacrifices Birds
(the fortieth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the lunar calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Ox Orifice
Return Taboo
Everything General

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Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
人

Person
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

倉
厠 庫

Granary
Toilet, Storehouse