China's Lunar Calendar 2018 08-18

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/24.................................................................................................................8/16

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
十
八

六期星

Eighth Month, Eighteenth Day  
Saturday, August 18

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不生時月
將氣陽德

Lunar Exemplarity
Timely Yang
Engendered Vapor
Not General

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

亥未卯
吉吉吉

23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
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 In-Between
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

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
搭苫放開
厠蓋水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water 
Thatched Coverings
Building Outhouses

 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
八
壬
午
木
胃
開

Eighth Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renwu (19/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Stomach (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜
上開出祭
樑市行祀
修交嫁祈
倉易娶福
置修納入
產造采學
納動移會
畜土徙友
鳴蟬寒
白天班長
虎火煞星

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Cultivating
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Setting-up Production
Livestock Payments

Cold Cicada Chirps
(the thirty-ninth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Long Star
Classified Balefulness
Heavenly Fire
White Tiger

 ————

Section Seven

白 火

White, Fire
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

碓 庫 倉

Pestle, Storehouse, Granary