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, November 29, 2023

China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2023 11-29

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
12/3............................................................................................................................................................11/26


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)
廿
三期星
Eleventh Month, Twenty-Ninth Day
Wednesday, November 29
————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
不陰時麒
將德陰麟
Unicorn
Timely Yin
Yin Exemplarity
Not General
————

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

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

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

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

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

開穿造合
池井酒醬
Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Boring Wells
Opening Ponds

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
Seventeenth Day (Tenth Lunar Month)
Cyclical Day: xinmao (28/60)
Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality: Eastern Wall (14/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide 
(5/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top to bottom; left to right)
樑立娶會
修約裁友
倉交衣出
納易移行
畜修徙訂
除造理婚
服動髮納
安土開采
葬上市嫁

元死小水
  武氣亡空
Appropriate Activities
(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Marriage Alliances
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Opening Markets
Making Appointments
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil 
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Livestock Payments
Discarding Clothing
Positioning Graves

Baleful Asterisms
(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)
Water Scar
Small Loss-Vacancy
Death Vapor
Primal Martiality

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese is read from right to left; the English, however, "fits" directly below each character)
丫 人
Bifurcation, Person
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items
(the Chinese is read from right to left; the English,
however, "fits" intuitively in the configuration of characters)
門 灶 厨
Gate, Stove, Kitchen

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