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, September 28, 2024

China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2024 09-28

 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
六期
Ninth Month, Twenty-Eighth Day
Sunday, September 28
————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
生合月
氣日德
Lunar Exemplarity
Linked Days
Engendered Vapor
————

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

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

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

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

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

除動栽
服土種
Planting and Cultivating
Moving Soil
Discarding Clothing

Section Five 
Cosmological Information
廿
Twenty-Sixth Day (Eighth Lunar Month)
Cyclical Day: yiwei (32/60)
Phase (element): Metal
"Constellation Personality: Maiden (10/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)
————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top to bottom; left to right)
移出祭
徙行祀
開嫁祈
市娶福
上納入
樑采學
納裁會
畜衣友
喪復
土五羊
符虛口
Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Raising Beams
Livestock Payments

Return Mourning

Baleful Asterisms
(top down, starting on the right; two characters each)
Goat Mouth
Five Voids
Soil Charm

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)
厠 磨
Pestle
Toilet, Mortar

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