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.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Calendars and Almanacs—Introduction (g)

A year ago on Round and Square (31 March 2012)—La Pensée Cyclique: Social Rhythms
Click here for the first post in the Round and Square introductory series "Calendars and Almanacs" 
[a] Shrouded RF
This is one post in a multi-part introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs." Click below for the other posts in the series:
CA 1          CA 2         CA 3          CA 4          CA 5  
CA 6          CA 7         CA 8          CA 9          CA 10         CA 11

The calendar is the heart of the almanac, and it is not too grand a statement to say that there would not be anything like the number of almanacs printed throughout Chinese history (and into the present) were it not for the fact that they contain a yearly calendar, requiring the purchase of a new volume each year. It is equally true that, in the thick (eight or more centimeters) volumes, the vast majority of the material is unchanging. If the sections with red characters can be referred to as the “calendrical” sections, then “the rest”—all black and white—is the almanac. The thickest almanacs have well over forty sections, and I have compiled over fifty discrete sections in the course of buying them for twenty-five years. Their contents are diverse, but they can be broken down into a number of conceptual categories that might help readers get a sense of the sections that make up the eclectic collection that constitutes the almanac. 
As we have seen, only the calendar is made for daily consultation. All of its other contents (almost two-hundred pages) form a miscellany of cultural knowledge, divination, and advice—in no particular order.  In an essay of this length, it is impossible to give a full perspective, but several broad categories will help to give readers an idea. In time, I will post explanations for each of the fifty-plus sections in the almanac on Round and Square.

Almanac Sections—Reference
Almanacs have several yearly reference charts in the opening pages. The “Hundred Year Chart” is a kind of birth year perspective on key information according to one’s age, and assumes the traditional idea that a child is one year old at birth.  Another chart gives a contrasting “century view,” this one covering two hundred years from 1851-2050.  It is an exercise in calendrical knowledge and practical politics. Several scattered entries give a sense of this often-consulted chart’s format. (Figure C). 

          1864: Tongzhi (emperor), third year; year one (of sixty); rat.
          1865: Tongzhi (emperor), fourth year; year two (of sixty); ox—
                     intercalary fifth month.
          1911: Xuantong (emperor), third year; year forty-eight (of sixty); pig—
                    intercalary sixth month.
          1912: Republic of China, first year; year forty-nine (of sixty); rat.
          1948: Republic of China, thirty-seventh year; year twenty-five (of sixty); rat.
          1949: (three spaces blank); year twenty-six (of sixty); ox—
                     intercalary seventh month.
          1951: (new page; readjusted spacing); year twenty-eight (of sixty); rabbit.
          1976: (readjusted spacing); year fifty-three (of sixty); dragon—
                     intercalary eighth month.
          1995: (readjusted spacing); year twelve (of sixty); ox—
                     interclalary eighth month.
          2008: (readjusted spacing); year twenty-five (of sixty); rat.
          2050: (readjusted spacing); year six (of sixty); horse.

[c] 200 Year Chart
The chart seems to be a standard “just the facts” listing of historical and cultural information, but critical interpretations are built into it.  Up until 1911, it provides a listing of Qing dynasty emperors, with their actual reign years. 1911 has the barest hint of a well-known event, the 辛亥革命, Revolution of Year Forty-Eight, which brought down China’s last imperial dynasty. 1912 notes the first year of the Republic of China, and holds the same character formatting as all of the imperial names—two “name” characters followed by two “year” characters (“Republic of China, Year One”). 

The pattern breaks down in 1949 in this Hong Kong-style almanac. Instead of choosing between the Republic of China (defeated and sequestered on Taiwan) or the People’s Republic of China, as most of the world had already done when this almanac was printed in mid-2007, it leaves it blank for two awkward columns at the end of the first page (1851-1950). Moving to the columns on the right side of the page (1951-2050), the “aesthetics” have been adjusted, but there is still no mention anywhere of the People’s Republic of China, ten years after Hong Kong was returned after British rule. 
Several layers of cultural meaning are built into even a chart this simple and straightforward. The cyclical animals swirl in unchanging order through the text, as does the cycle of sixty characters. These are never adjusted, and never vary.  There also is a faithful record (and anticipation) of intercalary 閏 months for two hundred years.  For the lunar year to follow accurately the changes of the solar year, a thirteenth month must be inserted into the calendar (hence the term intercalary) from time to time.  The shorthand calculation is that there need to be seven of these insertions every nineteen years, and it is easy enough to see the breakdown in the chart above, as well as the distribution of the months. All months but the first and twelfth may have occasional intercalary additions, and all are noted in the chart. 

Intercalary months also have a “culture” of their own—and some bits are of quite recent origin. An example is 1976, which had a repeated eighth lunar month. This was the year that Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong died. There was also a devastating earthquake.  A generation later, in 1994, China was buzzing with rumors that an ailing Deng Xiaoping would die in 1995—the first year since 1976 that the calendar announced an intercalary eighth month.  The rumors persisted, and, even though Deng lived until early 1997, a minor chord of prognostication at least temporarily took root—intercalary eighth years are times when great leaders pass on and the world rumbles.

This is one post in a multi-part introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs." Click below for the other posts in the series:
CA 1          CA 2         CA 3          CA 4          CA 5  
CA 6          CA 7         CA 8          CA 9          CA 10         CA 11
[e] Rumble RF

China's Lunar Calendar 2013 03-31

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
Today's calendar date:              *

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 calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar calendars (and Chinese culture) for many years, you will likely find yourself asking "what does that mean?" I would caution that "it" doesn't "mean" any one thing. 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 calendar. Some of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years

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.
Section One
Solar Calendar Date
(top to bottom; right to left) 

Third month, Thirty-first day
Astral Period Sun
(Sunday, March 31
———————————————— 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
六歲
日支
Generational Branch
Six Suns
—————————————————
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子
酉己丑
吉吉
戌午寅
吉中
亥未卯
吉中
23:00-01:00 Auspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
03:00-05:00 Inauspicious
05:00-07:00 In-Between

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

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

The hours above are for Hong Kong. It is up to you if you want to recalibrate or to assume that the cyclicality of the calendar "covers" the rest of the world. This is a greater interpretive challenge than you might think.
————————————————— 
Section Four
Activities to Avoid 
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 
安作
牀灶
Stove Work
Positioning Beds
————————————————— 
 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 



Twentieth Day (second lunar month)
Cyclical day: bingshen (33/60)
Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Void (11/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)
————————————————— 
Section Six
Appropriate Activities 
(and Miscellaneous Information)
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 
 
上祭
樑祀
補出
捉行
結移
綱徙
安理
葬髮

猴劫
口煞
Appropriate Activities
Paying Reverence
Going Out (and about)
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair
Erecting Beams
Seizing and Capturing
Binding Nets
Positioning Graves  
Lower Amputee
 
Miscellaneous Information
Baleful Plunder
Monkey Mouth

 ————————————————— 
 Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(right to left)
人 水
Person, Water
————————————————— 
Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
(Top to bottom; right to left) 

爐灶
Kitchen
Furnace, Stove

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Calendars and Almanacs—Introduction (f)

A year ago on Round and Square (30 March 2012)—Just Do It Over: Lean, Finely-textured Beef (Pink Slime)
Click here for the first post in the Round and Square introductory series "Calendars and Almanacs" 
[a] Receptacle RF
This is one post in a multi-part introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs." Click below for the other posts in the series:
CA 1          CA 2         CA 3          CA 4          CA 5  
CA 6          CA 7         CA 8          CA 9          CA 10         CA 11
 
Picking up right where we left off yesterday—you may remember a little calendar-consulting and excuse making—let’s ponder some of the implications of calendrical engagement. Social pressures often work against skeptics, though.  Consider what was a common case in Chinese history—that of a talented young man who had been chosen by his family to receive an education, and who began to read and write with increasing skill at the local schools.  He would be seen as the family’s key to success in the next generation.
[b] Deep breath RF

The fact that he would not be engaged in agricultural work meant that the rest of the family had to work all the harder, but they counted on his eventual success. In the course of his education, he would acquire many of the attitudes of his teachers, and would almost certainly begin to look down upon the “superstitions” in the almanac and its popular calendar. He occasionally might say as much to his family (occasionally making fun of sections others took seriously). Yet even after all of the “rational” instruction of his mentors, how might he respond if his grandfather asked him to examine the family almanac and find an appropriate day for the grain threshing? His “beliefs” may have changed during the course of his education, but would his actions change within the family? His personal feeling might have been utter disdain for the almanac, but if his grandfather asked, his behavior might well be guided by filial piety—family respect was paramount. His personal feelings would only be a small part of the matter. 
[c] Parallels RF

Returning to the seeming contradictions of August 8, 2008 (at the “unlucky”) time of 8:00 p.m., we confront some of the calendar’s themes—and those of Chinese culture—most powerfully. It should be obvious by now that there is no such thing as pure auspiciousness or utter inauspciousness. So many factors go into the cyclical rhythms of any one day that there will always be multiple weightings—often in seemingly contradictory directions. The eighth of August was an auspicious “completion” day, as well as a distinctly inauspicious “ghost carriage” day. It was, as is any twenty-four hour period in the calendar, a complex meeting place for numerous calendrical cycles—frozen into day columns on their continuing paths of five, twelve, twenty-eight, sixty, and beyond. Not all of the cycles carry the same cultural weight, and they change through time.  In the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE), for example, the constellations played a much more important role in individual fortune telling than today. 
[d] Guarded RF

The interpretive weight of the jianchu “personalities” are of relatively recent origin, yet they dominate cultural practice today for those who consult the traditional calendar. In addition to cultural “weighting” there is the sheer arbitrariness of cycles gathering together in a chance of circumstances, and this brings us to the biggest idea of all when it comes to Chinese conceptions of time in the calendar.  One way to look at time in the calendar is that it consists of a series of elements that are all eventually “the same.” Every fifth day is “the same,” in that it is made up of one of the five phases—metal on August eighth. Every twelfth day is “the same,” and August eighth shares similar properties with all other “completion” days (such as August 20th and September 1st  of that year). This is a powerful idea, and it is the reason that the Chinese have traditionally said that all time begins again every sixty years, with a new jiazi or “01-year” in the cycle of sixty. 

The opposite is equally true, though, and it is this contrast that makes Chinese temporal thought particularly resilient, nuanced, and flexible. Every day is utterly unique, too. If one calculates just the most common of the cycles, it will be seen that any one day’s major cycles, when taken together, completely “repeat” themselves only every three hundred years or so.  In terms of Chinese history, that is the very rough equivalent to the longest-reigning dynasties. A “repeat day” once a dynasty borders on uniqueness. When the dozens of other small cycles are added, however, no two days in all of human history are “the same.” This continual melody of “same/not same” is what gives Chinese temporal ideas their texture, and the Chinese calendar its symphonic quality.


This is one post in a multi-part introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs." Click below for the other posts in the series:
CA 1          CA 2         CA 3          CA 4          CA 5  
CA 6          CA 7         CA 8          CA 9          CA 10         CA 11

China's Lunar Calendar 2013 03-30

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
Today's calendar date:                                  *

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 calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar calendars (and Chinese culture) for many years, you will likely find yourself asking "what does that mean?" I would caution that "it" doesn't "mean" any one thing. 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 calendar. Some of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years

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.
Section One
Solar Calendar Date
(top to bottom; right to left) 



Third month, Thirtieth day
Astral Period Six
(Saturday, March 30
———————————————— 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
陰時續天
德陰世貴
Heavenly Nobility
Continued Eras
Timely Yin
Yin Virtue 
—————————————————
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子
吉吉吉
酉己丑
凶凶凶
戌午寅
吉中吉
亥未卯
中吉
23:00-01:00 Auspicious
01:00-03:00 Inauspicious
03:00-05:00 Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 Auspicious
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 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

The hours above are for Hong Kong. It is up to you if you want to recalibrate or to assume that the cyclicality of the calendar "covers" the rest of the world. This is a greater interpretive challenge than you might think.
————————————————— 
Section Four
Activities to Avoid 
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 
成動裁栽
服土衣種
Planting Crops
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Soil
Putting-together Clothing
————————————————— 
 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 



Nineteenth Day (second lunar month)
Cyclical day: yiwei (32/60)
Phase (element): Metal
Constellation: Woman (10/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)
————————————————— 
Section Six
Appropriate Activities 
(and Miscellaneous Information)
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 
 
安赴出祭
牀任行祀
作開訂祈
灶市婚福
安堅出入
門柱火學
醞上入會
釀樑宅友
——————
電始
—————— 
死地短
喪氣囊星
Appropriate Activities
Paying Reverence
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Building Fires
Entering Residences (staying home)
Traveling to (new) Jobs
Opening Markets
Solidifying Pillars
Erecting Beams
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Positioning Doors
Fermenting Beverages   

First Lightning
(the twelfth of seventy-two five-day micro-periods in the solar calendar—the 七十二候) 

Miscellaneous Information
Short Star
Earth Duffel
Death Vapors
Repeated Mourning  
 ————————————————— 
 Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(right to left)
白人
White, Person
————————————————— 
Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
磨 碓
(Top to bottom; right to left) 
Toilet, Mortar, Perch