China's Lunar Calendar 2020 09-22

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/29..............................................................................................................9/22

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
二

二期星

Ninth Month, Twenty-Second Day
Tuesday, September 22
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)
不三歲
將合支

Generational Branch
Three Linkages
Not General

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

中吉凶
23:00-01:00 In-Between

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

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 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 Inauspicious

21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

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

忌
修置買
倉業田

Purchasing Land
Setting-up Industry
Repairing Granaries

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

初
六
戊
辰

木
翌
危

Sixth Day (Eighth Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: wuchen (5/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Wings (27/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
社秋
分秋
卅廿亥
一一初
分時   
宜
安移嫁
牀徙娶
聲收始雷
天月四
刑煞擊
————

Autumn Festival
Autumn Divide (Autumn Equinox)
At the beginning of the hai hour; 21:31 o'clock
(the sixteenth of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities

Marriage Alliances
Moving Residences
Positioning Beds

Thunder's Rumbles Become Muted
(the forty-sixth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Four Fisticuffs
Lunar Balefulness
Heavenly Punishment

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

Bifurcation, 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)

房
栖 牀

Edifice
Perch, Bed