China's Lunar Calendar 2019 09-08

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/11..............................................................................................................9/4

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

日期星

Ninth Month, Eighth Day 
Sunday, September 8

————

Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天王天
馬日赦
Heavenly Amnesty
Kingly Days
Heavenly Equinity

————

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

亥未卯
中吉中

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

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

 ————

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

忌
安置買
牀業田

Buying Land
Setting-up Industry
Positioning Beds

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
十
戊
申
土
虛
閉

Tenth Day (Eighth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: wushen (45/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Void (11/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Closed (12/12)*
*Occasionally, a "day personality" repeats, as it does today.

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
露白
十六卯
七時正
分       

宜

修理嫁
倉髮娶
安交裁
葬易衣
來雁鴻
游血密
禍支日

 ————

White Dew
At the mao hour; 6:17 a.m.
(the fifteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)


Appropriate Activities

Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Patterning Hair
Trade and Commerce
Repairing Granaries
Positioning Graves

Wild Geese Arrive
(the forty-third of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Mysterious Days
Blood Branch
Natatorial Disaster

Section Seven
人 水

Person, Water

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items

房
爐 牀

Edifice
Furnace, Bed