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 12, 2020

China's Lunar Calendar 2020 01-12

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/16..............................................................................................................1/8
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
First Month, Twelfth Day 
Sunday, January 12
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
六歲時歲
合支德德
Generational Exemplarity
Timely Exemplarity
Generational Branch
Six Linkages
————

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

戌午寅

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

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
21:00-23:00 In-Between
 ————

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

祈祭出開
福祀財倉
Opening Granaries
Capital Outflow
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information






Eighteenth Day (Twelfth Lunar Month)
Cyclical day: jiayin (51/60)
Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Asterism (25/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)
————

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


安修理會
牀造髮會
作動掃訂
灶土舎婚
牧上立裁
養梁約衣
安安交移
髒門易徙
虛五
陰劫八密
將煞專日
————
Appropriate Activities
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Cutting-out Clothing (Sewing and Tailoring)
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Sweeping Rooms
Making Appointments
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Gates
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Raising Livestock
Positioning Graves

Five Voids

Baleful Astral Influences
Mysterious Days
Eight Specialties
Plundered Balefulness
Yin General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
White
 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation for is under the bottom characters)
爐 門 占
Furnace, Gate, Divination

No comments:

Post a Comment