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, January 24, 2016

China's Lunar Calendar 2016 01-24

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/30..............................................................................................................1/23
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 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
First Month, Twenty-Fourth Day
Astral Period Sun
Sunday, January 24
———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
四歲德歲
相馬合天
Generational Heaven
Virtuous Linkage
Generational Equine
Four Facings  
—————————————————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子
吉中吉
酉己丑
凶凶
戌午寅
吉中中
亥未卯
凶凶
23:00-01:00 Auspicious
01:00-03:00 Inauspicious
03:00-05:00 In-Between
05:00-07:00 In-Between

07:00-09:00 In-Between
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 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) 

成除遠栽
服靈行種
Planting Crops
Distant Journeys
Exorcising Spirits
Completing Clothing  
—————————————————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 







Fifteenth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: yisi (42//60)
Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Edifice (4/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (5/12) 
————————————————
Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
醞修納祭
釀造采祀
安動移祈
門土徙福
作上立會
灶樑約友
納修交嫁
畜倉易取
日重
厭死小密
 對氣亡空
————
Appropriate Activities  
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Households
Making Appointments
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Fermenting Beverages
Positoning Gates
Stove Work
Livestock Payments     

Doubled Days

Baleful Astral Influences
Mysterious Days
Small Loss-Void
Death Vapor
Mutual Repression
 ———— 

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
Bifurcation, Copse
———— 

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities
牀 磨 碓
Bed, Mortar, Pestle

No comments:

Post a Comment