China's Lunar Calendar 2020 08-17

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/18...............................................................................................................8/11

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

十
七

一期星

Eighth Month, Seventeenth Day
Monday August 17
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
月天天月
恩醫喜德

Lunar Exemplarity
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician
Lunar Kindness

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

吉中吉
23:00-01:00 In-Between

01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 Inauspicious
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 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 Auspicious

 ————

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

忌
針作放開
灸灶水渠

Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Stove Work
Acupuncture and Moxibustion

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿
八
壬
辰

水
畢
成

Twenty-Eighth Day (Sixth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: renchen (29/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Net (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
開交訂祭
倉易婚祀
納修納祈
畜造采福
成動裁入
服土衣學
安上開會
葬樑市友
鳴蟬寒
血月火龍
忌厭星口

————

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Opening Granaries
Livestock Payments
Completing Clothing
Positioning Graves

Cold Cicadas Chirp
(the thirty-ninth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Dragon Mouth
Fire Star
Lunar Repression
Blood Taboo

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)

栖 庫 倉

Perch, Storehouse, Granary