China's Lunar Calendar 2018 09-19

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
九

三期星

Ninth Month, Nineteenth Day  
Wednesday, September 19

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月解
空神

Releasing Spirits
Lunar Vacancy

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

亥未卯
中吉凶

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
祭開
祀倉

Opening Granaries
Venerating Ancestors

 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
十
甲
寅
水
參
執

Tenth Day (Eighth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiayin (51/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Gathering (21/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

化理
靈髮
成沐
服浴
修捕
墳捉
安田
葬獵
債
不
歸四
忌廢

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Patterning Hair
Bubbling and Bathing
Seizing and Capturing (Trapping)
Field Venery (Hunting)
Transforming Spirits
Completing Clothing
Repairing Tombs
Positioning Graves

Debt Not

Baleful Asterisms

Four Abandonments
Return Taboo

 ————

Section Seven

人 地

Person, Earth
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

占
灶 門

Divination
Stove, Gate