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.

Thursday, August 4, 2022

China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2022 08-04

 Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
8/10...................................................................................................................................,,,,,,,,,,,.......8/3


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

As for interpreting the translation, 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 tha"it" doesn't "mean" any one thing (almost any "it" you will see). 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 calendarSome of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years. And do not assume that people from China understand the traditional calendar particularly well, either. I have encountered confusion and furrowed brows for countless items in the calendar. It can seem "remote," in other words, from the world we live in these days, and yet it is printed anew every single year.

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
                                           (top to bottom, right to left)
四期星
Eighth Month, Fourth Day
Thursday, August 4
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
德天
合月
Heavenly Lunarity
Exemplary Linkage
————

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

申辰甲
酉巳丑
吉吉
戌午寅
亥未卯
凶凶
23:00-1:00 In-Between
1:00-3:00 Inauspicious
3:00-5:00 Auspicious
5:00-7:00 Auspicious

7:00-9:00 Auspicious
9:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 In-Between
13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

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

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


進新
水船
New Boats
Entering Water
————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
Seventh Day (Seventh Lunar Month)
Cyclical Day: jichou (26/60)
Phase (element): Fire
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Southern Dipper (8/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Destroy (7/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 
————
重月
喪破
復水
日痕
Seventh Evening
A traditional holiday, celebrated on the seventh night of the seventh month
to commemorate the once-yearly meeting between the herdboy and the weaving maiden.

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Destroying Rooms
Smashing Embankments

Baleful Asterisms
Lunar Destruction
Water Scar
Doubled Mourning
Repeated Days
————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read left to right)
白 州
White, Edifice
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items
(the Chinese should be read left to right)
厠 門
Divination
Toilet, Gate

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