China's Lunar Calendar 2019 07-23

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
三

二期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Third Day 
Tuesday, July 23

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

除月福
神恩德
Fortunate Exemplarity
Lunar Kindness
Discarding Spirits

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

亥未卯
中中凶

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
針造合
灸酒醬

Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Moxibustion and Acupuncture

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
一
辛
酉
木
觜
滿

Twenty-First Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinyou (58/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Beak of the Turtle (20/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness: (3/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
署大
五十巳
十事正
分       

————
宜

入理嫁
倉髮娶
安開裁
葬市衣
瑩為草腐
陰血灾
將忌煞
 ————

Great Heat
At the beginning of the si hour; 10:50 a.m.
(the twelfth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing (Tailoring)
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Opening Markets
Entering Granaries
Positioning Graves

Rotted Weeds Become Fireflies
(the thirty-fourth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Disastrous Balefulness
Blood Taboo
Yin General

Section Seven
人 山

Person, Mountain

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

廚

門 灶

Kitchen
Gate, Stove