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.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

China's Lunar Calendar 2014 12-27

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/2/2015..........................................................................................................................12/26
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
(top to bottom; right to left
廿

六期星
Twelfth Month, Twenty-Seventh Day
Astral Period Six
Saturday, December 27
———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
天天月歲
醫喜德馬
Generational Horse
Lunar Virtue
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician
—————————————————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子

酉己丑
吉吉吉
戌午寅
凶凶
亥未卯
中吉吉
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
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 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 In-Between

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  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

動安放開
土牀水渠
Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Positioning Beds
Moving Soil
—————————————————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 





Sixth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: renshen (9/60)
Phase (element): Metal
Constellation: Foundation (3/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)
—————————————————  

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)

上理出祭
樑髮行祀
安醫嫁祈
門病娶福
作開納入
灶市采學
安交移會
葬易徙友
解角麋
陽土五上
將符離兀
————
Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Households
Patterning Hair
Physician Treatments
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Putting-up Beams
Positioning Doors
Stove Work
Positioning Graves

Elk Break Antlers
(the sixty-fifth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences
Upper Amputee
Five Separations
Earth Charm
Yang General
————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 地
White, Earth
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous
爐 庫 倉
Furnace, Storehouse, Granary

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