China's Lunar Calendar 2019 08-08

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/12................................................................................................................8/6

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
八
日

四期星

Eighth Month, Eighth Day 
Thursday, August 8

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

母合月
倉日德
Lunar Exemplarity
Linked Days
 Maternal Granary

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

亥未卯
吉凶凶

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
裁整理
衣甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Cutting-Out Clothing (Tailoring)

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
八
丁
丑
水
斗
執

Eigihth Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingchou (14/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Southern Ladle (8/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)*
*Occasionally, the calendar repeats a "day-personality," as it does today.

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
秋立

十三寅

三時初

分       
————
宜
上納出

樑采行
安動嫁
葬土娶
至風涼
俱歸長
將忌星

 ————

Beginning of Autumn
At the beginning of the yin hour; 3:13 a.m. 
(the thirteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Graves

Cool Winds Arrive
(the thirty-seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)


Baleful Astral Influences

Long Star
Return Taboo
Everything General

Section Seven
人

Person

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

倉

厠 庫

Granary
Toilet, Storehouse