China's Lunar Calendar 2018 09-15

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/22.............................................................................................................9/14

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
五

六期星

Ninth Month, Fifteenth Day  
Saturday, September 15

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

十守月鳳
靈日德凰

Phoenix
Lunar Virtue
Protected Days
Ten Spirits

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

亥未卯
中吉凶

23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 In-Between
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 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
行成除結
喪服靈網

Binding Nets
Expelling Spirits
Completing Clothing
Mourning Visits

 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
六
庚
戌
金
胃
除

Sixth Day (Eighth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengxu (47/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Stomach (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

修掃嫁祭
倉舎娶祀
安修納祈
門造采福
栽動移會
種土徙友
安上理出
葬樑髮行
喪三
俱血伏暗
將忌斷金

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (an about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair
Sweeping Rooms
Repairing Granaries
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Positioning Doors
Planting and Cultivating
Positioning Graves

Three Mournings

Baleful Asterisms

Dark Metal
Prostrate Breakage
Blood Taboo
Everything General

 ————

Section Seven

白

White
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

栖 磨 碓

Perch, Mortar, Pestle