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.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

China's Lunar Calendar 2014 09-23

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
9/23....................................................................................................................9/16

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

二期星
Ninth Month, Twenty-Third Day
Astral Period Two
Tuesday, September 23
———————————————— 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
十玉官
靈堂日
Official Days
Jade Hall
Ten Spirits
—————————————————
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子
中中
酉己丑
吉中吉
戌午寅
中吉中
亥未卯
吉吉
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 In-Between
05:00-07:00 Inauspicious

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

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

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) 

動整理
土甲髮
Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Moving Soil
—————————————————  
 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 





Thirtieth Day Day (Eighth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: dingyou (34/60)
Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Beak of the Turtle (20/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)
—————————————————  

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
(and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
分秋
廿十己
九時正
      分              

啟掃祭
攢舍祀
安伐沐
葬木浴
聲收始雷
月土水
刑府痕
————
Autumn Equinox
Begins at the ji hour; 10:29 AM

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Bubbling and Bathing
Sweeping Rooms
Felling Timber
Starting Savings
Positioning Graves

Thunder Begins to Pipe Down

Baleful Astral Influences
Water Scar
Earth Palace
Lunar Punishment
————
  
Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 州
White, Landmass
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Information
庫 倉
Gate
Storehouse, Granary

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