China's Lunar Calendar 2016 07-01

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
6/26................................................................................................................6/18

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
一七
日月

五期星

Seventh Month, First Day

Astral Period Five
Friday, July 1

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不驛相
將馬日

Facing Days
Postal Horse
Not General 

————

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

戌午寅
中凶凶
亥未卯
中吉中

23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
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 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.
                             —————————————————

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

忌
安出開
牀財倉
Opening Granaries
Cash Outflow
Positioning Beds 

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
七
甲
申
水
鬼
滿
Twenty-Seventh Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiashen (21/60)

Phase (element): Water
Constellation: Ghost (23/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness: (3/12)

————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information  
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
動裁祭
土衣祀
上移祈
樑徙服
除理出
服髮行
安開嫁
葬市娶
生夏半
天五孤
狗虛辰

————
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Cutting-out Clothing

Moving Households

Patterning Hair

Opening Markets

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Discarding Clothing

Positioning Beds

Crowdipper Flourishes
(the thirtieth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Orphan Dawn
Five Voids
Heavenly Canine
————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

丫 地

Bifurcation, Earth
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities
占
爐 門 

Divination
Kitchen, Gate