China's Lunar Calendar 2020 07-06

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
7/11............................................................................................................7/4

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

六
日

一期星

Seventh Month, Sixth Day 
Monday, July 6
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
十三普歲
靈合護德

Generational Exemplarity
Universal Protection
Three Linkages
Ten Spirits

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

中吉中
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious

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

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

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

 ————

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

忌
產修栽結
室置種網

Binding Nets
Planting and Cultivating
Repairing Rooms
Setting-up Production

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
六
庚
戌

金
心
定

Sixteenth Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: gengxu (47/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Heart-Mind (5/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
署小
十廿子
四三初
 分時    
宜

上開嫁祭
樑市娶祀
安動移出
葬土徙行
至風溫
天死九四
   刑氣鬼土祥不

————

Slight Heat
At the beginning of the zi hour; 23:14 o'clock
The eleventh of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar.

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Graves

Warm Winds Arrive
The thirty-first of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar.

Baleful Astral Influences

Four Auspicious-Nots
Nine Ghost-Soils
Death Vapor
Heavenly Punishment

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

Bifurcation, Fire
————

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)

栖 磨 碓

Perch, Mortar, Pestle