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, September 30, 2018

China's Lunar Calendar 2018 09-30

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/30.............................................................................................................9/23
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

期星
Ninth Month, Thirtieth Day  
Sunday, September 30
————

Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
金母合月
堂倉日德
Lunar Virtue
Linked Days
Maternal Granary
Golden Hall

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰

酉巳丑

戌午寅
中中
亥未卯
凶凶
23:00-01:00 Auspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Inauspicious

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
9:00-11:00 Inauspicious
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 In-Between
21:00-23:00 In-Between
 ————

Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

行除時栽
喪服插種
Planting and Cultivating
Timely Injections
Discarding Clothing
Mourning Visits
 ————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
廿





Twenty-First Day (Eighth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: yichou (2/60)
Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Edifice (4/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information  
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
上開訂祭
樑市婚祀
安交納祈
牀易采福
作修嫁會
灶造娶友
安動移出
葬土徙行
兀上
俱復死密
將喪氣日
 ————
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Positioning Graves

Upper Amputee

Baleful Asterisms
Mysterious Days
Death Vapor
Repeat Mourning
Everything General
 ————

Section Seven
人 林
Person, Copse
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
厠  磨  碓
Toilet, Mortar, Pestle

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