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.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

China's Lunar Calendar 2015 03-29

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
4/1...................................................................................................................3/25
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

期星
Third Month, Twenty-Ninth Day
Astral Period Sun
Sunday, March 29
———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
十吉守月
靈期日德
Lunar Virtue
Protected Days
Auspicious Temporal-Slice
Ten Spirits
—————————————————

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
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) 

行除出開
喪服財倉
Opening Sluices
Cash Outflow
Expelling Spirits
Mourning Visits
—————————————————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 






Tenth Day (Second Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: jiachen (41/60)
Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Void (11/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)
—————————————————  

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
上理出祭
樑發行祀
修移訂祈
倉徙納福
栽修納求
種造采嗣
安動嫁會
葬土娶友
喪三
俱天無密
醬行祿日
————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Seeking Inheritance
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Patterning Hair
Moving Households
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Planting and Cultivating
Positioning Beds

Three Mournings

Baleful Astral Influences
Mysterious Days
Five Emoluments
Heavenly Punishment
Everything General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars 
人 火
Person, Fire
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous
栖 碓 門
Perch, Mortar, Gate

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