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, May 16, 2013

China's Lunar Calendar 2013 05-16

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  
⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
LEFT May 22....................................................................................May 15 RIGHT

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)  


期星
Fifth month, sixteenth day
Astral Period Four
Thursday, May 16
———————————————— 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)
青聖吉官
龍心期日
Official Days
Auspicious Temporal-Segment
Sagely Heart-Mind
Blue-Green Dragon
—————————————————
Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left
申辰子
酉己丑
中吉吉
戌午寅
中中
亥未卯
23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
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 In-Between
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
19:00-21:00 In-Between
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) 
進新放開
船水渠
Opening Sluices
Putting-into Water
New Boats
Entering Water 
————————————————— 
 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 






Seventh Day (fourth lunar month)
Cyclical day: renwu (19/60)
Phase (element): Wood
Constellation: Horn (1/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)
————————————————— 
Section Six
Appropriate Activities 
(and Miscellaneous Information)
(top-to-bottom; right to left)   

上交理祭
樑易髮祀
安納醫祈
牀財病福
作修掃會
灶造舍友
安動開出
葬土市行
生瓜王
復咸楊水
喪池忌痕
Appropriate Activities
Paying Reverence
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Patterning Hair
Physician Visits
Sweeping Rooms
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Capital Expenditures
Repairing and Building
Moving Soil
Erecting Beams
Positioning Beds
Stove Work
Positioning Graves  

Cucurbit Flourishes
(the twenty-first of seventy-two mini-periods in the solar year)

Miscellaneous Information 
Water Scar
Poplar Taboo
Diminution Pond
Return Mourning  
 —————————————————  
Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(right to left)

White
————————————————— 
Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities
(Top to bottom; right to left) 
碓 庫 倉
Pestle, Storehouse, Granary

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