Round and Square: China's Lunar Calendar 2018 06-15

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.

Friday, June 15, 2018

China's Lunar Calendar 2018 06-15

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: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
6/18..................................................6/14.............Monthly Calendar Preview

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.

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation***

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
十
五

五期星

Sixth Month, Fifteenth Day
Friday, June 15

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***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation***
Section Two
Beneficent Stars

(top to bottom, right to left)

月天麒歲
恩喜麟德

Generational Virtue
Unicorn
Heavenly Happiness
Lunar Kindness

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation***
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left)
申辰子
凶凶凶
酉巳丑
中吉吉
戌午寅
中吉凶

亥未卯
中吉吉

23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 Inauspicious
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 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 In-Between

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
祈祭置買
福祀業田

Buying Land
Setting-up Industry
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation***
Section Five
Cosmological Information

初
二
戊
寅
土
牛
成

Second Day (Fifth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: wuyin (15/60)

Phase (element): Earth
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Ox (9/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

***Check out the full explanation of today's lunar-solar calendar translation***

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

安修納入
牀造采學
栽動嫁會
種土娶友
納上裁出
畜樑衣行
安開醫訂
葬倉病婚
不債
陽白歸下
將虎忌兀

————

Appropriate Activities
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Treating Illness
Repairing and Constructing
Raising Beams
Opening Granaries
Positioning Beds
Planting and Cultivating
Livestock Payments
Positioning Graves

Debt Not

Baleful Astral Influences