China's Lunar Calendar 2019 07-17

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/23.................................................................................................................7/16

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-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
十
七

三期星

Seventh Month, Seventeenth Day 
Wednesday, July 17

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天三麒
喜合麟
Unicorn
Three Linkages
Heavenly Happiness

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

亥未卯
吉吉吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
21:00-23:00 Auspicious

 ————

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

忌
開穿栽
池井種

Planting and Cultivating
Boring Wells
Opening Ponds

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
五
乙
卯
水
壁
成

Fifteenth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: yimao (52/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Eastern Wall (14/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
食偏月
復食初
圓甚虧
辰卯寅
初初正
七五四
時時時
零卅零
零一一
分分分
煞班
陽大四
將煞耗
 ————

Moon Partially Consumed
(Partial Lunar Eclipse)
Beginning of Deficit: At the yin hour; 4:01 a.m.
Maximum Consumption: At the beginning of the mao hour; 5:31 a.m.
Return to Roundness: At the beginning of the chen hour; 7:00 a.m.


Classified Balefulness

Baleful Astral Influences

Four Squanders
Great Balefulness
Yang General

Section Seven
丫

Bifurcation

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

碓
門 磨

Pestle
Gate, Mortar