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.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

China's Lunar Calendar 2016 05-18

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/18................................................................................................................5/11
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

期星
Fifth Month, Eighteenth Day
Astral Period Three
Wednesday, May 18
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
天月三歲
馬德合支
Generational Branch
Three Linkages
Lunar Virtue
Heavenly Horse
————

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

07:00-09:00 In-Between
9:00-11:00 In-Between
11:00-13:00 In-Between
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

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) 

進新問結
水船卜網
Binding Nets
Divinatory Inquiries
New Boats
Entering Water
————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 








Twelfth Day Day (Fourth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: gengzi (37/60)
Phase (element): Earth
Constellation: Winnowing Basket (7/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information  
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
修移訂祭
倉徙婚祀
安修納祈
牀造采福
作動嫁會
灶土娶友
安上裁出
葬樑衣行
痕水
陰白五鼠
將虎虛口
————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Households
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Positioning Graves

Water Scar  

Baleful Astral Influences
Rat Mouth
Five Voids
White Tiger
Yin General
————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
White, Fire
———— 

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities
磨 碓 占
Mortar, Pestle, Divination

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