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.

Monday, May 27, 2024

China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 05-27

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/28................................................................................................................................................5/21


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
一期星
Fifth Month, Twenty-Seventh Day
Monday, May 27
————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
生陰普天
氣德護德
Heavenly Exemplarity
Universal Protection
Yin Exemplarity
Engendered Vapor
————

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

申辰甲
酉巳乙
吉吉
戌午寅
吉吉
亥未卯
中吉
23:00-1:00 In-Between
 01:00-03:00 In-Between
 03:00-05:00 Auspicious
 05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 In-Between
  09:00-11:00 Auspicious
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 Inauspicious
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious
————

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
Twentieth Day (Fourth Lunar Month)
Cyclical Day: xinmao (28/60)
Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality: Drawn Bow (26/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top to bottom; left to right)
動理出祭
土髮行祀
上開嫁祈
樑市娶福
作交納入
灶易采學
置修移會
產造徙友
煞班
俱元天灾
將武火煞
Appropriate Activities
(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Stove Work
Setting-up Production

Classified Balefulness

Baleful Asterisms
(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)
Disastrous Balefulness
Heavenly Conflagration
Primal Martiality
Everything General

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