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, September 26, 2024

China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 09-26

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
10/2...........................................................................................................................................9/25


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
四期
Ninth Month, Twenty-Sixth Day
Thursday, September 26
————

 Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
不月天四
將恩喜相
Four Facings
Heavenly Happiness
Lunar Kindness
Not General
————

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

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

07:00-09:00 Auspicious
  09:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 In-Between
13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

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

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

成除遠詞
服服行訟
Lawsuits and Litigation
Distant Journeys
Discarding Clothing
Completing Clothing

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
廿
Twenty-Fourth Day (Eighth Lunar Month)
Cyclical Day: guisi (30/60)
Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality: Southern Dipper (8/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top to bottom; left to right)
樑開友祭
修市嫁祀
倉交娶祈
安易納福
牀修采求
栽造移嗣
種動徙入
納土醫學
畜上病會

朱刀重九
  雀砧日鬼土
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Seeking Inheritance
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Residences
Physician Visits
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Repairing and Constructing
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Repairing Granaries
Positioning Beds
Planting and Cultivating
Livestock Payments

Baleful Asterisms
(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)
Nine Ghost-Soils
Doubled Days
Sword Anvil
Vermilion Bird

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

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items
(the Chinese is read from right to left; the English,
however, "fits" intuitively in the configuration of characters)
牀 房 占
Bed, Edifice, Divination

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