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, December 22, 2013

China's Lunar Calendar 2013 12-22

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
LEFT December 22............................................................................................December 15 RIGHT
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 calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar 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.
Section One
Solar Calendar Date
(top to bottom; right to left) 
廿

期星
  Twelfth Month, Twenty-second Day
Astral Period Sun
Sunday, December 22
———————————————— 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
生月德歲
氣德日支
Generational Branch
Virtuous Days
Lunar Virtue
Engendered Vapor
—————————————————
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子
凶凶
酉己丑
中吉中
戌午寅
亥未卯
吉吉
23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00 In-Between
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Auspicious

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
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.
————————————————— 
Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 
塞補放開
穴垣水渠
Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
Patching Embankments
Stopping-up Caves
————————————————— 
 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 






Twentieth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: renxu (59/60)
Phase (element): Water
Constellation: Asterism (25/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)
————————————————— 
Section Six
Appropriate Activities
(and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
節冬
至冬
十一丑
一時初
分        

動開訂祭
土市婚祀
結蚓蚯 
九天五大
空刑虛亡空
Winter Festival
Winter Solstice
At the beginning of the chou hour; 1:11 a.m.
(the twenty-second of twenty-four fifteen-day periods in the solar calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Marriage Engagements
Opening Markets
Moving Soil

Earthworms Twist
(the sixty-fourth of seventy-two five-day micro-periods in the solar calendar)

Miscellaneous Information  
Great Loss-Void
Five Vacancies
Heavenly Punishment
Nine Voids

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left)
人 火
Person, Fire
————
Section Eight
Miscellaneous Information
(Top to bottom; right to left)
栖 庫 倉
Granary, Storehouse, Perch

No comments:

Post a Comment