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.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

China's Lunar Calendar 2015 01-21

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/23.............................................1/20...................Monthly Calendar Information
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
三期星
First Month, Twenty-First Day
Astral Period Three
Wednesday, January 21
———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
十天三母
靈喜合倉
Maternal Granary
Three Linkages
Heavenly Happiness
Ten Spirits
—————————————————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子
中中
酉己丑
吉中吉
戌午寅
中吉中
亥未卯
凶凶
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 In-Between
05:00-07:00 Inauspicious

07:00-09:00 In-Between
9:00-11:00 In-Between
11:00-13:00 Auspicious
13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

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

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) 

詞足整理
訟甲手髮
Patterning Hair
Tending Hands
Toenail Trimming
Lawsuits and Litigation
—————————————————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 





Second Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: dingyou (34/60)
Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Running Board (28/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)
—————————————————  

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
上開納祭
樑市采祀
醞交裁入
 釀易衣學
成修移出
服造徙行
安動醫嫁
葬土病娶
煞班
陽大五反
將煞離支
————
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Entering Study
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Households
Physician Visits
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Building
Moving Soil
Putting-up Beams
Fermenting Beverages
Completing Clothing
Positioning Graves
 
Classified Balefulness

 
Baleful Astral Influences
Oppositional Branch
Five Separations
Great Balefulness
Yang General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 山
White, Mountain
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous
庫 倉 門
Storehouse, Granary, Gate

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