From Round to Square (and back)

For The Emperor's Teacher, scroll down (↓) to "Topics." It's the management book that will rock the world (and break the vase, as you will see). Click or paste the following link for a recent profile of the project: http://magazine.beloit.edu/?story_id=240813&issue_id=240610

A new post appears every day at 12:05* (CDT). There's more, though. Take a look at the right-hand side of the page for over four years of material (2,000 posts and growing) from Seinfeld and country music to every single day of the Chinese lunar calendar...translated. Look here ↓ and explore a little. It will take you all the way down the page...from round to square (and back again).
*Occasionally I will leave a long post up for thirty-six hours, and post a shorter entry at noon the next day.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

China's Lunar Calendar 2013 03-05

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 
Today's date:                                                                                                    * 
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 calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar 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.
 
Section One
Solar Calendar Date

Third month, fifth day
Astral Period Two
(Tuesday, March 5
———————————————— 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars
臨時三時
日陰日德
Timely Virtue
Three Suns
Timely Yin
Encountering Sun
—————————————————
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
申辰子
酉己丑
吉中
戌午寅
亥未卯
吉中
23:00-01:00  Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 In-Between
03:00-05:00  Auspicious
05:00-07:00 In-Between

07:00-09:00 In-Between
09:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00  Auspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious
The hours above are for Hong Kong. It is up to you if you want to recalibrate or to assume that the cyclicality of the calendar "covers" the rest of the world. This is a greater interpretive challenge than you might think.
 
————————————————— 
Section Four
Activities to Avoid 
 忌 
除動塔結
服土厠綱
 Binding Nets
Building Outhouses
Moving Soil
Discarding Clothing
————————————————— 
 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 
廿


Twenty-fourth day (first lunar month)
Cyclical day: gengwu (7/60)
Phase (element): Earth
Constellation: Room (13/28)
Jianchu Cycle: Decide (5/12)
————————————————— 
Section Six
Appropriate Activities 
(and Miscellaneous Information)
蟄驚
——————————
十十
五八
分時     
——————————
上移嫁祭
娶祀
安開納出
葬市采行
——————————
 華始桃
——————————
 陽死復地
將氣喪囊

Insects Awaken
(the third of twenty-four "solar year" periods)
Begins in the middle of the you hour, at 18:15

Appropriate Activities
Paying Reverence
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Ceremonies
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Erecting Beams
Positioning Graves 

Peaches Begin to Flower
(the seventh of seventy-two "mini-cycles" in the solar year) 

Miscellaneous Information
Earth Duffel
Repeat Mourning
Death Vapor
Yang General
 ————————————————— 
 Section Seven
Inauspicious Star
白   火
White, Fire
————————————————— 
Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities 
磨 碓 占
Pestle, Perch, Divination

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