China's Lunar Calendar 2019 08-23

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/29................................................................................................................8/23

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
三

五期星

Eighth Month, Twenty-Third Day 
Friday, August 23

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

德歲月天月
日支恩喜德
Lunar Exemplarity
Heavenly Happiness
Lunar Kindness
Generational Branch
Exemplary Days

————

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

亥未卯
吉中吉

23:00-01:00 In-Between
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 In-Between

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

 ————

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

忌
針作修放開
灸灶廚水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Kitchen Repairs
Stove Work
Acupuncture and Moxibustion

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
三
壬
辰
水
鬼
成

Twenty-Third Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renchen (29/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Ghost (23/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
署處
零十酉
二八正
分時   

宜

納上開訂祭
畜樑市婚祀
安開動裁會
葬倉土衣友
鳥祭乃鷹
大血月火月
煞忌厭星忌

 ————

Heat Ceases
At the beginning of the you hour; 18:02 o'clock.
(the fourteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Cutting-out Clothing
Opening Markets
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Opening Granaries
Livestock Payments
Positioning Graves

Hawks Sacrifice Birds

(the fortieth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)


Baleful Astral Influences

Lunar Taboo
Fire Star
Lunar Repression
Blood Taboo
Great Balefulness

Section Seven
白 地

White, Earth

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items

栖 庫 倉

Perch, Storehouse, Granary