China's Lunar Calendar 2020 06-28

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/3............................................................................................................6/25

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
八

日期星

Sixth Month, Twenty-Eighth Day 
Sunday, June 28
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
十天天歲
靈醫喜馬

Generational Equinity
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician
Ten Spirits

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

中吉吉
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
祈祭放開
福祀水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
八
壬
寅

金
星
成

Eighth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renyin (39/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Asterism (25/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

安交納入
牀易采學
作修裁會
灶造衣友
納動醫出
畜土病行
安上開嫁
葬樑市娶
忌歸
下俱大白
兀將煞虎

————

Appropriate Activities

Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)
Physician Visits
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Livestock Payments
Positioning Graves

Return Taboo

Baleful Astral Influences

White Tiger
Great Balefulness
Everything General
Lower Amputee

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
白 水

White, Water
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation for is under the bottom characters)

爐 庫 倉

Furnace, Storehouse, Granary