China's Lunar Calendar 2019 08-03

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
三
日

六期星

Eighth Month, Third Day 
Saturday, August 3

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

陽吉
德期
Auspicious Time-Slice
Yang Virtue

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

亥未卯
中吉吉

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

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

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
安開
牀渠

Opening Sluices
Positioning Beds

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
三
壬
申
金
氐
除

Third Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renshen (9/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Foundation (3/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
開祭

市祀

醫祈

病福

除理

服髮

安掃

葬舎
水
痕

劫猴

煞口

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Patterning Hair

Sweeping Rooms

Opening Markets

Physician Treatments

Discarding Clothing

Positioning Graves

Water Scar

Baleful Astral Influences

Monkey Mouth
Plundered Balefulness

Section Seven
丫 火

Bifurcation, Fire

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

倉

爐 庫

Granary

Furnace, Storehouse