China's Lunar Calendar 2019 07-28

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/31.................................................................................................................7/24

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
八

日期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Eighth Day 
Sunday, July 28

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

六歲五金
合支富匱
Golden Cupboard
Five Abundances
Generational Branch
Six Linkages

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

亥未卯
中中吉

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
祈祭作修
福祀灶廚

Repairing Kitchens
Stove Work
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
六
丙
寅
火
星
危

Twenty-Sixth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingyin (3/60)

Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Asterism (25/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
栽安出會
種牀火友
納安入訂
畜門宅婚
成入開納
服倉倉采
安醞出嫁
葬釀采娶
署溽潤土
俱上水債
將兀痕不

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Starting Fires
Entering Residences
Opening Granaries
Capital Outflow
Positioning Beds
Positioning Gates
Entering Granaries
Fermenting Beverages
Planting and Cultivating
Livestock Payments
Completing Clothing
Positioning Graves

Earth is Steaming Wet
(the thirty-fifth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Water Scar
Upper Amputee
Everything General

Section Seven
丫

Bifurcation

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

爐 灶 廚

Furnace, Stove, Kitchen