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.

Monday, October 31, 2016

China's Lunar Calendar 2016 10-31

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/4......................................................10/31..........Monthly Calendar Information
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
卅十
一月
期星
Tenth Month, Thirty-First Day
Astral Period One 
Monday, October 31
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
月天歲
德德德
Generational Virtue
Heavenly Virtue
Lunar Virtue
————

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

酉己丑
吉吉
戌午寅

亥未卯
吉中吉
23:00-01:00 Auspicious
01:00-03:00 In-Between
03:00-05:00 Inauspicious
05:00-07:00 Auspicious

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
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) 

行作修
喪灶廚
Kitchen Repairs
Stove Work
Mourning Visits
————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information







First Day (Tenth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: bingxu (23/60)
Phase (element): Earth
Constellation: Heart-Mind (5/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Establish (1/12)
————

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

建嫁祭
屋娶祀
上納祈
梁采福
安移會
牀徙友
安開出
葬市行
府土
三長上
喪星兀
————
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Households
Opening Markets
Establishing Rooms
Raising Beams
Positioning Beds
Positioning Graves   

Earth Palace

Baleful Astral Influences
Upper Amputee
Long Star
Three Mournings
———— 

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
天 白
Heaven, White

———— 

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities

栖 灶
Kitchen
Perch, Stove

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