Calendars and Almanacs—Introduction (j)

A year ago on Round and Square (3 April 2012)—La Pensée Cyclique: Total Social Phenomena
Click here for the first post in the Round and Square introductory series "Calendars and Almanacs" 

[a] Full RF

This is one post in a multi-part introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs." Click below for the other posts in the series:

CA 1          CA 2         CA 3          CA 4          CA 5  

CA 6          CA 7         CA 8          CA 9          CA 10         CA 11

[b] Heavy RF

Far from the passivity—and utter inability to change, short of surgical intervention—found in the physiognomy sections, the last section we will consider is “active,” and often taken quite seriously.  The spiritual weight table is an example of an almanac ritual that many families undertook after the birth of a child—especially, in earlier eras, that of a young boy.  The Adventures of Wu, a detailed fictional account of life in early twentieth century “traditional China” serialized in a Beijing newspaper, gives an account of the “spiritual weighing” process.  The baby is affectionately called “Little Bald Head,” a gently negative name employed as a way of warding off evil influences, a common practice in China until the mid-twentieth century.

          They soon found the family almanac and the book was opened at the 
          page which contained the method for telling a person’s fortune by the 
          time factors. The calculation immediately began.  They found that the year 
          was that of the “rooster” and that accounted for 1.6 ounces weight of 
          “significance.” That he was born on the second eighth moon (it happened to 
          be a Lunar leap year)…which accounted for 1.5 ounces. The 12th day 
          accounted for 1.8 ounces, and the hour, between 5 and 6 o’clock in the 
          afternoon, or “monkey” time, accounted for 0.8 ounces.  The total was 5.7 
          ounces, which was a good weight, according to the almanac. The maximum 
          weight is seven ounces and the minimum is 2.1 ounces and so little Bald 
          Head was way “above the average,” so to speak. Looking further they found 
          the predictions, which were as follows.
                     The Star of Fame shines through this man’s Future,
                     And his position will be of high rank whatever he’ll venture;
                     His stomach filled entirely with literary embroidery,
                     And to his family he will bring reputation and glory.
          At these lines, as they were read aloud sarcastically by young Mr. Wu [the 

          boy’s father, who had many years of formal education] and listened to intently 
          by all present, they rejoiced and clapped their hands.[1]

[c] Gathering RF

The passage shows not only the family spirit of almanac use, but also a glimpse of a skeptic (young Mr. Wu) seemingly outnumbered by those who listened carefully and rejoiced in the positive message. Many people regard spiritual weight with seriousness to this day, but it is by no means shared by everyone.  It is a “weighing” of birth times—a way of organizing what are called the “eight characters” of birth in an equation that individuals and family members keep close to them, guarding it with some caution. A student from Taiwan once remarked that her father counseled her never to tell her spiritual weight to a stranger. There was a danger of causing havoc with such personal information—a kind of spiritual “identity theft” that can be difficult to undo. Whatever the reader might think of such a notion, it is a common one in traditional households to this day.

Let us say that a person was born in a bingxu (twenty-three of sixty) year, on the sixteenth day of the fifth month, during the first hourly period of the day. This would correspond to June 11, 2006 (a completely arbitrary example), just after midnight.

          Bingxu year           0.6  (eight liang)
          Fifth month            0.5  (five liang)
          Sixteenth day        0.8  (eight liang)
          First Hour              1.6  (one jin, six liang)
               _______________________________________________________ 
          Total                      3.5  (three jin, five liang)

We then turn through the columns of the section until we find three jin and five liang, where we read the following.

          (3.5)
          生平 褔量不週全  祖業根基覺少傳
          營事生涯宜守舊   時來衣食勝從前

         (3.5)
         When young there will not be much fortune
         The property of your ancestors will not be passed down to you
         Be conservative with financial decisions
         When elderly, your life will be more prosperous than earlier

[d] Weighty RF

This is a decidedly less optimistic spiritual weight and reading than Little Bald Head received in the fictional account of his life, even though it gives a somewhat optimistic perspective on the individual’s old age.  Comparing the two fortunes from the almanac, it must be considered again whether these kinds of matters cast a shadow over the family perceptions of those fated to such readings. What would a festive family occasion be like when the fortune above was read? Far from rejoicing and clapping, as in the case of Little Bald Head’s fictional family, there would likely be an uncomfortable pall cast over the occasion.

One way to interpret such an event is to invoke the concept of “secondary elaboration,” in which a negative prognostication can be “spun” toward a more positive meaning. We have already seen an example, above, when two women decide to flout the injunctions of the calendar to make burial garments on an “unlucky” day. It was not uncommon in Chinese social life to interpret a statement such as the “spiritual weight” one above in a way that would give it a sense of growing prosperity throughout life—something that is difficult to reconcile with a literal reading of the text. Such “secondary elaborations,” as some authors have called them, are an integral part of the interpretive process illuminated in the Chinese calendar and almanac.[2] They are ways of negotiating the unknown—a rhetoric, or series of “rhetorics,” of fate and future—and they lie at the heart of social and cultural life in China and beyond. 

This is one post in a multi-part introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs." Click below for the other posts in the series:

CA 1          CA 2         CA 3          CA 4          CA 5  

CA 6          CA 7         CA 8          CA 9          CA 10         CA 11

[e] Rhetoric RF

Notes 
H.Y. Lowe. The Adventures of Wu: The Life Cycle of a Peking Man (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 46.
Robin Horton. “African Traditional Thought and Western Science” Africa 37:1 & 2: 50-71, 155-187.

Bibliography 
Robin Horton. “African Traditional Thought and Western Science,” Africa 37:1 & 2: 50-71, 155-187.
Lowe, H.Y. The Adventures of Wu: The Life Cycle of a Peking Man. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.