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.

Saturday, December 30, 2023

China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2023 12-30

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/2..................................................................................................................................................12/26


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)
六期
Twelfth Month, Thirtieth Day
Saturday, December 30
————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
生月六歲
氣德合支
Generational Branch
Six Linkages
Lunar Exemplarity
Engendered Vapor
————

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

申辰甲
凶凶
酉巳丑
戌午寅
亥未卯
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 Inauspicious
9:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

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

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

田伐放開
獵木水渠
Opening Irrigation Sluices
Putting-into Water
Felling Timber
Field Venery (Goin' Huntin')

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
Eighteenth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)
Cyclical Day: renxu (59/60)
Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality: Stomach (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open 
(11/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top to bottom; left to right)
作動定祭
灶土婚祀
修竪納祈
倉柱采福
置上裁入
產量衣學
納安修會
畜門造友
不債
九天五寡
空刑虛宿
Appropriate Activities
(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Erecting Pillars
Raising Beams
Positioning Gates
Stove Work
Repairing Granaries
Setting-up Production
Livestock Payments

Debt Not

Baleful Asterisms
(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)
Generational Destruction
Orphan Hostel
Five Voids
Heavenly Punishment
Nine Vacancies

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese is read from right to left; the English, however, "fits" directly below each character)
白 火
White, Fire
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items
(the Chinese is read from right to left; the English,
however, "fits" intuitively in the configuration of characters)
栖 庫 倉
Perch, Storehouse, Granary

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