China's Lunar Calendar 2019 08-02

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/5.......................................................8/1...........Monthly Calendar Information

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
二
日

五期星

Eighth Month, Second Day 
Friday, August 2

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

三歲月
合支恩
Lunar Kindness
Generational Branch
Three Linkages

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

亥未卯
中中吉

23:00-01:00 In-Between
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 Auspicious
13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
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
行動合
喪土醬

Mixing Sauces
Moving Soil
Mourning Visits

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
二
辛
未
土
亢
建

Second Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinwei (8/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Neck (2/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
上訂祭

樑婚祀

開納會

倉采友

牧裁出

養衣行

安移赴

葬徙任
行時雨大

三土債

喪府不

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Taking-up Office
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing (Tailoring)
Moving Residences
Raising Beams
Opening Granaries
Raising Livestock
Positioning Graves

Great Rains Sweep Through
(the thirty-sixth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Soil Palace
Three Mournings

Section Seven
白 神

White, Spirit

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

廚
厠 灶
Kitchen
Toilet, Stove