China's Lunar Calendar 2018 07-28

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/2...............................................................................................................7/26

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
八

六期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Eighth Day  
Saturday, July 28

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月福民
恩德日

Peopled Days
Fortunate Exemplarity
Lunar Kindness

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

亥未卯
中中凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
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
針造合
灸酒醬

Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Moxibustion and Acupuncture

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
六
辛
酉
木
柳
滿

Sixteenth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinyou (58/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Willow (24/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

食全月
復食初
圓甚虧
卯寅丑
正正正
六四二
時時時
十廿廿
九二四
分分分
————
署溽潤土
血灾雞
吉煞口
 ————

Total Lunar Eclipse
Begins: the chou hour 2:24 a.m.
Full: the yin hour 4:22 a.m.
Ends: the mao hour 6:19 a.m.

Earth is Steaming Wet

(the thirty-fifth of seventy-two solar micro-periods on the solar calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Chicken Mouth
Disastrous Balefulness
Blood Taboo

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
丫 山

Bifurcation, Mountain

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

廚
門 灶

Kitchen
Gate, Stove