China's Lunar Calendar 2017 09-12

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/19...........................................................................................................9/12

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
十
二

二期星

Ninth Month, Twelfth Day

Tuesday, September 12

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

德歲歲
日支德

Generational Virtue

Generational Branch

Virtuous Days

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

吉中吉
亥未卯
中吉凶

23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
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
祭放開
祀水渠
Boring Wells
Putting-into Water
Venerating Ancestors

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
二
壬
寅
金
室
執
Twenty-Second Day (Eighth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renyin  (39/60)

Phase (element): Metal
Constellation: Room (13/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

————

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

宜

栽建入
種屋學
納安會
畜門友
修作出
墳灶行
安捕理
葬捉髮
歸鳥玄
陽歸短
將忌星
————

Appropriate Activities
Entering Study

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and About)

Patterning Hair

Constructing Rooms

Positioning Doors

Stove Work

Seizing and Capturing

Planting and Cultivating

Livestock Payments

Repairing Tombs

Positioning Graves

Swallows Leave
(the forty-fourth of seventy-two five-day micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Short Star
Return Taboo
Yang General

———— 

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
人 地

Person, Earth
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

倉
爐 庫

Granary
Furnace, Storehouse