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.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

China's Lunar Calendar 2015 12-24

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/1/2016............................................................................................................12/24
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
廿
期星
Twelfth Month, Twenty-Fourth Day
Astral Period Four
Thursday, December 24
———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
月生時四
恩氣陽相
Four Facings
Timely Yang
Engendered Vapor
Lunar Kindness
—————————————————

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

酉己丑
戌午寅
亥未卯
中吉吉
23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00 Inauspicious
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
9:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 In-Between
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.
                             —————————————————

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

塞補出開
穴垣財倉
Opening Granaries
Cash Outflow
Patching Embankments
Plugging Caves 
—————————————————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 







Fourteenth Day Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: jiaxu (11/60)
Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Horn (1/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12) 
—————————————————  

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)

作修訂祭
灶造婚祀
置動納祈
產土采福
開上裁入
渠樑衣學
穿安開會
井門市友
虛五
俱天寡月
將刑宿忌
————
Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
 Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Opening Markets
Repairing and Building
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Gates
Stove Work
Setting-up Production
Opening Sluices
Boring Wells   
 
Five Voids

B
aleful Astral Influences
Lunar Taboo
Widowed Hostel
Heavenly Punishment
Everything General
———— 
 
Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
White, Fire

———— 
Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities
栖 碓 門 
Perch, Pestle, Gate

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