China's Lunar Calendar 2019 06-27

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/2...............................................................................................................6/25

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
廿
七

四期星

Sixth Month, Twenty-Seventh Day 
Thursday, June 27

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

三歲不麒
合支將麟
Unicorn
Not General
Generational Branch 
Three Linkages

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

亥未卯
吉中吉

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
行除裁載
喪服衣種

Planting and Cultivating
Cutting-out Clothing (Tailoring)
Discarding Clothing
Mourning Visits

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
五
乙
未
金
井
除

Twenty-Fifth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: yiwei (32/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Well (22/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

動掃納祭
土舎采祀
上開嫁會
樑市娶友
安交移出
牀易徙行
安修理訂
葬造髮婚
鳴始蜩
龍勾三短
虎陳喪星
 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair
Sweeping Rooms
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Positioning Graves

Cicadas Sing
(the twenty-ninth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Short Star
Three Mournings
Narrative Hook
Dragon Tiger

Section Seven
白 林

White, Copse

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

厠 磨 碓

Toilet, Mortar, Pestle