China's Lunar Calendar 2020 07-26

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/1...............................................................................................................7/25

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
六

日期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Sixth Day 
Sunday July 26
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
月歲
空德

Generational Exemplarity
Lunar Vacancy

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

中吉中
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious

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

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 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
詞結
訟網

Binding Nets
Lawsuits and Litigation

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
六
庚
午

土
星
閉

Sixth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: gengwu (7/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Asterism (25/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Closed (12/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
中
伏

————

宜

拆
卸
掃
舎
反歲
支破
血密
支日

————

Middle Prostration
(the second in a period of three fortnights of intense heat in the heart of summer)

Appropriate Activities

Unhitching and Unloading
Sweeping Rooms

Baleful Astral Influences

Generational Destruction
Mysterious Days
Opposed Branch
Blood Branch

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

White, Earth
————

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)

占
磨 碓

Divination
Mortar, Pestle