China's Lunar Calendar 2020 07-16

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/20............................................................................................................7/12

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-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
六

四期星

Seventh Month, Sixteenth Day 
Thursday, July 16
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
相歲歲
日祿德

Generational Exemplarity
Generational Emolument
Facing Days

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉吉凶
酉巳丑
中吉凶
戌午寅
凶凶凶
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 Auspicious
9:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
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

 ————

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

廿
六
庚
申

木
奎
除

Twenty-Sixth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengshen (57/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Astride (15/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
伏初
————
宜

作掃祭
灶舎祀
除動入
服土學
安安理
葬門髮
虛五
下劫大
  兀煞亡空

————

Beginning Prostration
(the first of three periods of heat during the warming months)

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Entering Study
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Sweeping Rooms
Moving Soil
Positioning Gates
Stove Work
Discarding Clothing
Positioning Graves

Five Voids

Baleful Astral Influences

Great Loss-Void
Plundered Balefulness
Lower Amputee

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
丫 火

Bifurcation, Fire
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation for is under the bottom characters)

碓
爐 磨

Pestle
Furnace, Mortar