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, December 30, 2015

China's Lunar Calendar 2015 12-30

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/1/2016............................................................................................................12/24
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

期星
Twelfth Month, Thirtieth Day
Astral Period Three
Wednesday, December 30
———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
不天三歲
將恩合德
Generational Virtue
Three Linkages
Heavenly Kindness
Not General
—————————————————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子
中吉
酉己丑
中吉
戌午寅
凶凶
亥未卯
吉吉中
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
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 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

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

產修栽結
室置種網
Binding Nets
Planting and Cultivating
Repairing Rooms
Setting-up Production
—————————————————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 







Twentieth Day Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: gengchen (17/60)
Phase (element): Metal
Constellation: Winnowing Basket (7/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12) 
————————————————
Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)

上立納祭
樑約采祀
安交嫁祈
牀易娶福
作修裁會
灶造衣友
安動移訂
葬土徙婚
氣死
天大伏暗
亡空斷金
————
Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Households
Making Appointments
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Positioning Graves  

 Death Vapor

Baleful Astral Influences
Dark Metal
Prostrate Breakage
Great Loss-Void
Heavenly Penitentiary
 ———— 

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
White
———— 

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities
栖 磨 碓
Perch, Mortar, Pestle

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