China's Lunar Calendar 2018 07-27

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/2...............................................................................................................7/26

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.

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
廿
七

五期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Seventh Day  
Friday, July 27

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Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

陽相歲
德日馬

Generational Horse
Facing Days
Yang Exemplarity

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Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉凶凶
酉巳丑
中吉凶
戌午寅
凶吉凶

亥未卯
中吉中

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
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.
                             —————————————————

Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
修安結
倉牀網

Binding Nets
Positioning Beds
Repairing Granaries

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
五
庚
申
木
鬼
除

Fifteenth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengshen (57/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Ghost (23/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

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Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

伏中
————
宜

作掃祭
灶舎祀
除動入
服土學
安安理
葬門髮
虛五
陰劫八
將煞專
 ————

Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Entering Study

Patterning Hair

Sweeping Rooms

Moving Soil

Positioning Gates

Stove Work

Discarding Clothing

Positioning Graves
Five Voids

Baleful Astral Influences

Eight Specialties
Plundered Balefulness
Yin General

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
丫 火

Bifurcation, Fire

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

碓
爐 磨

Pestle
Furnace, Mortar