China's Lunar Calendar 2018 08-08

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/10...............................................................................................................8/3

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
八
日

三期星

Eighth Month, Eighth Day  
Wednesday, August 8

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不月歲
將德馬

Generational Horse
Lunar Exemplarity
Not General

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

亥未卯
中吉吉

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

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 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
動安開
土牀渠

Opening Sluices
Positioning Beds
Moving Soil

 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
七
壬
申
金
箕
建

Twenty-Seventh Day Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renshen (9/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Winnowing Basket (7/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)*
*Occasionally, a "day personality" is repeated, as it is today.

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

開嫁祭
市娶祀
上納祈
樑采福
作移會
灶徙友
安理出
葬髮行
離五
土月無
府建祿
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair
Opening Markets
Raising Beams
Stove Work
Positioning Graves 

Five Separations

Baleful Asterisms

Without Emolument
Lunar Establishment
Soil Palace

 ————

Section Seven

丫 鬼

Bifurcation, Ghost
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

倉
爐 庫

Granary
Furnace, Storehouse