China's Lunar Calendar 2020 09-07

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/8.................................................................................................................9/1

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

一 期星

Ninth Month, Seventh Day
Monday, September 7
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
天六歲
德合支

Generational Branch
Six LInkages
Heavenly Exemplarity

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

中凶吉
23:00-01:00 Auspicious

01:00-03:00 Auspicious
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 Inauspicious

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

19:00-21:00 Auspicious

21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
取田詞
魚獵訟

Lawsuits and Litigation
Field Venery (Hunting)
Garnering Piscinity (Fishing)

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

二
十
癸
丑

木
危
執

Twentieth Day (Seventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: guichou (50/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Danger (12/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
露白
令十午
八二正
分時   

————

宜
上訂祭
樑婚祀
安動出
葬土行
來雁鴻
歸小小
 忌耗亡空
————

White Dew
Precisely at the zheng hour; 12:08 o'clock
(the fifteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Graves

Wild Geese Arrive
(the forty-third of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Small Loss-Vacancy
Small Squander
Return Taboo

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

Person
————

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)

房
厠 牀

Edifice
Toilet, Bed