China's Lunar Calendar 2018 07-22

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/25..........................................................................................................7/18

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-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
廿
二

日期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Second Day  
Sunday, July 22

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

六歲德歲
合支日支

Generational Branch
Exemplary Days
Generational Branch
Six Linkage 

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉凶中
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 Inauspicious
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

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
裁開穿裁
衣池井種

Planting and Cultivating
Digging Wells
Opening Ponds
Cutting-out Clothing

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
十
乙
卯
水
昂
成

Tenth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: yimao (52/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Pleiades (18/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜
修醫出祭
倉病行祀
築修嫁祈
堤造娶福
成動納入
服土采學
安上移會
葬樑徙友
星長
陽班債兔
將煞不口
 ————

Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Physician Treatments
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Building Dikes
Completing Clothing
Positioning Graves

Long Star

Baleful Astral Influences

Rabbit Mouth
Debt Not
Classified Balefulness
Yang General

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
人

Person

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

磨 碓 門

Mortar, Pestle, Gate