China's Lunar Calendar 2020 08-07

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/10...............................................................................................................8/2

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

七
日

五期星

Eighth Month, Seventh Day 
Friday August 7
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
生月
氣德

Lunar Exemplarity
Engendered Vapor

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

吉吉吉
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious

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 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between

19:00-21:00 In-Between

21:00-23:00 Auspicious

 ————

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

忌
苫開
蓋渠

Opening Sluices
Thatched Coverings

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
八
壬
午

木
牛
開

Eighteenth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: renwu (19/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Oxen (9/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)*
*Occasionally a "day personality" repeats, as it does today

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
立
秋
零己
六初
分九
    時
宜

卸拆
凉
風
至
債歲
不破
————

Beginning of Autumn
At the beginning of the ji hour; 9:06 a.m.
(the thirteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Unhitching and Unloading

Cooling Winds Arrive
(the thirty-seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Generational Destruction
Debt not

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

White, 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
碓 庫

Granary
Pestle, Storehouse