China's Lunar Calendar 2018 06-27

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

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/4..............................................................................................................6/27

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-solar (or "luni-solar" calendar; I call it the "lunar" calendar in order to distinguish it from the kinds of calendars most Westerners use. It has a basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying 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. You will likely find that several of the translations seem quite "fanciful" in English. I am simply trying to convey that they also sound fairly fanciful in Chinese.

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
廿
七

三期星

Sixth Month, Twenty-Seventh Day  
Wednesday, June 27

————
***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十天三歲
靈喜合支

Generational Branch
Three Linkages
Heavenly Happiness
Ten Spirits

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
凶凶凶
酉巳丑
中中吉
戌午寅
凶中吉

亥未卯
中吉吉

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

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
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 Inauspicious
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.
                             —————————————————

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
移祈祭結
徙福祀網

Binding Nets
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Moving Residences

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
四
庚
寅
木
參
成

Fourteenth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengyin (27/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Gathering (21/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜
修交納入
倉易采學
安修裁會
牀造衣友
作動醫出
灶土病行
安上開嫁
葬樑市娶
鳴始蜩
俱歸月下
將忌忌兀

————

Appropriate Activities
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Physician Visits
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Positioning Graves

Cicadas Begin to Sing
(the twenty-ninth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Lower Amputee
Lunar Taboo
Return Taboo
Everything General
***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
丫 水

Bifurcation, Water
———— 
***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

占
厠 門

Furnace, Mortar, Pestle

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation***