China's Lunar Calendar 2018 08-02

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
二
日

四期星

Eighth Month, Second Day  
Thursday, August 2

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

五母三歲
富倉合支

Generational Branch
Three Linkages
Maternal Granary
Five Abundances

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

亥未卯
中中吉

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

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
9:00-11:00 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.
                             —————————————————

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

忌
祈祭作修
福祀灶廚

Kitchen Repairs
Stove Work
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
一
丙
寅
火
角
危

Twenty-First Day Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingyin (3/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Horn (1/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

栽納出會
種財火友
納安入訂
畜牀宅婚
成開開納
服倉市采
安入交嫁
葬庫易娶
行時雨大
俱游刀小
 將禍砧亡空
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Starting Fires
Entering Residences
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Capital Outflow
Positioning Beds
Opening Granaries
Opening Storehouses
Planting and Cultivating
Livestock Payments
Completing Clothing
Positioning Graves 

Great Rains Begin
(the thirty-sixth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Small Loss-Void
Sword Anvil
Natatorial Disaster
Everything General

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
人

Person

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

爐 灶 廚

Furnace, Stove, Kitchen