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.

Monday, May 21, 2018

China's Lunar Calendar 2018 05-21

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: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/28..................................................................................................................5/20
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
廿
一
一期星
Fifth Month, Twenty-First Day 
Monday, May 21
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
天天合歲
醫喜日德
Generational Virtue
Linked Days
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
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
進新移詞
水船徙訟
Lawsuits and Litigation
Moving Residences
New Boats
Entering Water

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
初
七
癸
丑
木
危
成
Seventh Day (Fourth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: guichou (50/60)
Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Danger (12/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)
————
Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information  
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
滿小
十十巳
五時正
分       
宜
安動醫出
牀土病行
安上開裁
葬樑市衣
秀菜苦
歸上水楊
忌兀痕忌
————
Grain Full
At the si hour; 10:15 a.m.

(the sixth of seventy-two fifteen day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)
 
Appropriate Activities
Going Out (and about)
Cutting-out Clothing
Physician Visits
Opening Markets
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Positioning Graves

Bitter Herb Grows Tall
(the twenty-second of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences
Poplar Taboo
Water Scar
Upper Amputee
Return Taboo
***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation*** 
Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(top-to-bottom; left to right)
白 山
White, Mountain
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
(top-to-bottom; left to right)
厠 牀 房
Toilet, Bed, Edifice
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