The 1911 Revolution in China, the Chinese Calendar, the Imaginary <i>Qi</i> and Healing: Translating <i>Li Fa</i> into an Australian Chinese Calendar and into an English Edition of the Northern Hemispherical Chinese Calendar

Abstract

One of the consequences of the 1911 Revolution in China was the political demise of the traditional Chinese calendar li fa . As China adopted the Gregorian Calendar, the modern Western time system replaced the premodern Chinese time system. This resulted in the fracturing of the ‘unified field of all existence’ of various premodern traditional Chinese practices including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Using a new understanding of science and other knowledge systems as local and situated, I translate and adapt the traditional Chinese calendar to the conditions of the Southern Hemisphere in Australia. An English rendition of the Northern Hemisphere Chinese Calendar is also made. I see the concepts of qi, yin and yang , the five-elements/agents/phases wu xing and the Eight Trigrams/Hexagrams of the Book of Changes yi jing as imaginaries, which animate both our human bodies and other bodies in the universe. Thus, in commemoration of the centenary of the 1911 Revolution or Xin Hai Ge Ming in China, we celebrate the birth of a Chinese Calendar in the Southern Hemisphere—The Australian Chinese Calendar.