China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-23

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/24.........................................................................................................................8/16

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 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
(top to bottom; right to left
廿
三

六期星

Eighth Month, Twenty-Third Day

Astral Period Six
Saturday, August 23

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

解歲
神祿

Generational Emolument
Releasing Spirits

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Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
凶凶凶
酉己丑

吉中中

戌午寅
中吉凶
亥未卯

中中吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
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.

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

忌
祭作
祀灶
Stove Work
Venerating Ancestors

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 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
八
丙
寅
火
胃
破

Twenty-eighth Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingyin (3/60)

Phase (element): Fire

Constellation: Stomach (17/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Destroy (7/12)

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

————
處
暑
四午
十正
六十
分二
    時
————
宜
屋破
————
鷹
乃
祭
鳥
上月
兀破
————
Stopping of Heat
Begins in the wu hour at precidely 11:46 AM
(the fourteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the lunar calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Destroying Rooms

Raptor Sacrifices Birds
(the fortieth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the lunar calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Lunar Destruction
Upper Amputee

————

  Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 天
White, Heaven
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Information
廚
爐 灶
Kitchen
Furnace, Stove