China's Lunar Calendar 2018 09-02

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/9.................................................................................................................9/2

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

日期星

Ninth Month, Second Day  
Sunday, September 2

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十陰合月
靈德日德

Lunar Exemplarity
Linked Days
Yin Exemplarity
Ten Spirits

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

亥未卯
吉吉凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 Auspicious

 ————

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

忌
進新整理
水船甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
New Boats
Entering Water

 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
三
丁
酉
火
房
除

Twenty-Third Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingyou (34/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Edifice (4/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

修動納祭
倉土采祀
納上裁祈
畜樑衣福
除安掃求
服門舎嗣
安安修訂
葬牀造婚
登乃禾
陰咸月水
將池忌痕

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Seeking Inheritance
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Sweeping Rooms
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Gates
Positioning Beds
Repairing Granaries
Livestock Payments
Discarding Clothing
Positioning Graves

Rice Ripens
(the forty-second of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Asterisms

Water Scar
Lunar Taboo
Widespread Pond
Yin General

 ————

Section Seven

人 人

Person, Person
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

庫
倉 門

Storehouse, Granary, Gate