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.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

China's Lunar Calendar 2018 05-17

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 
***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/19.....................................................5/15.....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-solar (or "luni-solar" calendar; I call it the "lunar" calendar in order to distinguish it from the kinds of calendars most Westerners use. It has a basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying 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. You will likely find that several of the translations seem quite "fanciful" in English. I am simply trying to convey that they also sound fairly fanciful in Chinese.
Section One
Solar Calendar Date
十
七
四期星
Fifth Month, Seventeenth Day 
Thursday, May 17
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
進月民四
神恩日相
Four Facings
Peopled Days
Lunar Kindness
Entering Spirits

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

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

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

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.
                             —————————————————
***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 
忌
塞補動詞
穴垣土訟
Lawsuits and Litigation
Moving Soil
Patching Embankments
Plugging Caves

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
初
三
己
酉
土
斗
定
Third Day (Fourth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: jiyou (46/60)
Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Dipper (8/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)
————
Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information  
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
醞理納祭
釀髮采祀
納堅嫁祈
畜柱娶福
成上裁出
服樑衣行
安開移訂
葬倉徙婚
囊地
陰朱反債
將雀支不
————
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair
Erecting Pillars
Raising Beams
Opening Granaries
Fermenting Beverages
Raising Livestock
Completing Clothing
Positioning Graves

Earth Duffel

Baleful Astral Influences
Inauspicious Stars
(top-to-bottom; left to right)
白 林
White, Copse
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
(top-to-bottom; left to right)
門 大 占
Gate, Great, Divination
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