China's Lunar Calendar 2018 07-03

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

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⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/4..............................................................................................................6/27

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.

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Section One

Solar Calendar Date
三
日

二期星

Seventh Month, Third Day  
Tuesday, July 3

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不驛月歲
將馬德馬

Generational Equinity
Lunar Virtue
Postal Horse
Not General

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

亥未卯
吉吉中

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

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

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

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
田安作修
獵牀灶廚

Kitchen Repairs
Stove Work
Positioning Beds
Field Venery

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information

二
十
丙
申
火
翌
滿

Twentieth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingshen (33/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Wings (27/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (4/12)

————

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Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜
上開嫁祭
樑市娶祀
修交納祈
倉易采福
成修裁會
服造衣友
安動移出
葬土徙行
兀下
五孤無五
虛辰祿離
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Completing Clothing
Positioning Graves

Lower Amputee

Baleful Astral Influences

Five Separations
Without Emolument
Orphan Dawn
Five Voids
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Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
人 地

Person, Earth
———— 
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Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

爐 灶 廚

Furnace, Stove, Kitchen

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