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, November 11, 2018

China's Lunar Calendar 2018 11-11

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
11/12.....................................................11/8..........................Monthly 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-solar (or "luni-solar" calendar; I call it the "lunar" calendar in order to distinguish it from the kinds of calendars most Westerners use. It has a basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying 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. You will likely find that several of the translations seem quite "fanciful" in English. I am simply trying to convey that they also sound fairly fanciful in Chinese.
Section One
Solar Calendar Date

期星
Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day  
Sunday, November 11
————

Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
天天三鳳
醫喜合凰
Phoenix
Three Linkages
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician

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

酉巳丑
凶凶
戌午寅
中吉中
亥未卯
吉吉
23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00 Inauspicious
03:00-05:00 In-Between
05:00-07:00 Inauspicious


07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
9:00-11:00 Inauspicious
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
 ————

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

田詞整理
獵訟甲髮
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Trimming Nails
Lawsuits and Litigation
Field Venery (Hunting)
Section Five 
Cosmological Information







Fourth Day (Tenth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: dingwei (44/60)
Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Pleiades (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information  
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
開交訂祭
渠易婚祀
安修納祈
牀造采福
作動裁入
灶土衣學
安上開會
葬樑市友
對厭 
招四反密
搖擊支日
 ————
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments 
Cutting-out Clothing (Tailoring)
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Opening Sluices
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Positioning Graves

Mutual Repression

Baleful Asterisms
Mysterious Days
Opposed Branches
Four Fisticuffs
Rollicking Braggadocio
 ————

Section Seven
Bifurcation
 ————

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
厠 庫 倉
Toilet, Storehouse, Granary

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