China's Lunar Calendar 2019 08-13

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
十
三

二期星

Eighth Month, Thirteenth Day 
Tuesday, August 13

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生時月歲
氣陽德祿
Generational Emolument
Lunar Exemplarity
Timely Yang
Engendered Vapor

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

亥未卯
吉吉吉

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

07:00-09:00 In-Between
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 In-Between
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 Auspicious

 ————

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

忌
搭苫放開
厠蓋水渠

Opening Sluices (Irrigation)
Putting-into Water
Thatched Coverings
Building Toilets

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
三
壬
午
木
室
開

Thirteenth Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renwu (19/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Room (13/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

動移出祭
土徙行祀
上開嫁祈
樑市娶福
修交納入
倉易采學
置修裁會
產造衣友
降露白
白灾上班
虎煞兀煞

 ————

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing (Tailoring)
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Setting-up Production 

White Dew Descends
(the thirty-eighth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Classified Balefulness
Upper Amputee
Baleful Conflagration
White Tiger

Section Seven
白 火

White, Fire

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

碓 庫 倉

Pestle, Storehouse, Granary