China's Lunar Calendar 2020 07-27

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
七

一期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Seventh Day 
Monday July 27
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
月聖守
恩心日

Protected Days
Sagely Heart-Mind
Lunar Kindness

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

中中吉
23:00-01:00 In-Between

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

07:00-09:00 In-Between
9:00-11:00 Auspicious

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
 13:00-15:00 In-Between

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

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
行造合
喪酒醬

Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Mourning Visits

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
七
辛
未

土
張
建

Seventh Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: xinwei (8/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Drawn Bow (26/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

開納祭
市采祀
上裁會
樑衣友
牧移出
養徙行
安開訂
葬倉婚
署溽潤土
三土水
喪府痕

————

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)
Moving Residences 
Opening Granaries
Opening Markets
Raising Beams
Tending Livestock
Positioning Graves

Soil is Hot, Damp, and Muggy
(the thirty-fifth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Water Scar
Soil Palace
Three Mournings

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

White, Spirit
————

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)

廚
厠 灶

Kitchen
Toilet, Stove