China's Lunar Calendar 2020 07-28

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
八

二期星

Seventh Month, Twenty-Eighth Day 
Tuesday July 28
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
陽吉歲
德期祿

Generational Emolument
Auspicious Time-Slice
Yang Exemplarity

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

中吉吉
23:00-01:00 Auspicious

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

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

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
 13:00-15:00 Auspicious

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

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
作安開
灶牀渠

Opening Sluices
Positioning Beds
Stove Work

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
八
壬
申

金
翌
除

Eighth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: renshen (9/60)

Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Wings (27/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜

成沐祭
服浴祀
除掃祈
服舎福
破醫理
土病髮
安開整
葬市客
星火
劫孤五
煞辰離

————

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Renovating for Guests
Bubbling and Bathing
Sweeping Rooms
Physician Visits
Opening Markets
Completing Clothing
Discarding Clothing
Ramming Earth
Positioning Graves

Fire Asterism

Baleful Astral Influences

Five Separations
Orphan Dawn
Plundered Balefulness

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

Person, 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)

倉
爐 庫

Granary
Furnace, Storehouse