China's Lunar Calendar 2019 07-22

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/23.................................................................................................................7/16

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
廿
二

一期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Second Day 
Monday, July 22

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

吉陽相
期德日
Facing Days
Yang Exemplarity
Auspicious Time-Slice

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

亥未卯
中吉中

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

07:00-09:00 Auspicious
9:00-11:00 Inauspicious
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
裁安結
衣牀網

Binding Nets
Positioning Beds
Cutting-out Clothing

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

二
十
庚
申
木
畢
除

Twentieth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengshen (57/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Net (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
伏中
————
宜

捕掃祭
塞舎祀
除動入
服土學
安作理
葬灶髮
星短
劫五上
煞虛兀
 ————

Middle Prostration
(the second of three periods of intense heat)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Entering Study
Patterning Hair
Sweeping Rooms
Moving Soil
Stove Work
Patching and Plugging
Discarding Clothing 
Positioning Graves

Short Star

Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee
Five Voids
Plundered Balefulness

Section Seven
人 火

Person, Fire

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

碓

爐 磨

Pestle
Furnace, Mortar