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, October 29, 2021

China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2021 10-29

  Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/4.................................................................................................................................................10/28


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

As for interpreting the translation, 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 tha"it" doesn't "mean" any one thing (almost any "it" you will see). 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 calendarSome of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years. And do not assume that people from China understand the traditional calendar particularly well, either. I have encountered confusion and furrowed brows for countless items in the calendar. It can seem "remote," in other words, from the world we live in these days, and yet it is printed anew every single year.

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
                                              (top to bottom, right to left)
廿
五期星
Tenth Month, Twenty-Ninth Day
Friday, October 29

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
天十麒
恩靈麟
Unicorn
Ten Spirits
Heavenly Kindness

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

申辰甲
酉巳丑
戌午寅
亥未卯
23:00-1:00 Inauspicious
1:00-3:00 Auspicious
3:00-5:00 In-Between
5:00-7:00 In-Between

7:00-9:00 Inauspicious
9:00-11:00 In-Between
11:00-13:00 Auspicious
13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

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

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


行動結
喪土網
Binding Nets
Moving Soil
Mourning Visits
————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
廿
Twenty-Fourth Day (Ninth Lunar Month)
Cyclical Day: genxu (47/60)
Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Oxen 
(9/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 
苫移祭
蓋徙祀
搭納出
厠財行
牧竪赴
養株任
納上裁
畜梁衣
府土
月白三
建虎喪
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Taking-up Office
Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)
Moving Residences
Capital Outflow
Erecting Pillars
Raising Beams
Thatched Coverings
Building Toilets
Raising Livestock
Livestock Payments

Soil Palace

Baleful Astral Influences
Three Mournings
White Tiger
Lunar Establishment
————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left)
白 天
White, Heaven
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items
栖 磨
Pestle
Perch, Mortar

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