calendars and Ninefox Gambit

[asakiyume]

Something you notice very quickly when you start reading Ninefox Gambit is the importance of the calendar. It’s the foundation stone of empire: things that subvert empire cause “calendrical rot,” and, conversely, things that cause calendrical rot are subversion, or, as the story terms it, heresy—like rebellion but even more rebellious.

This focus on calendars is a stroke of genius. Calendars **are** powerful mechanisms of cultural control. Think about how the international standard calendar for business and commerce is the Gregorian calendar, which ties its start date to Christianity. (People do use other calendars in various places and for various purposes, but the Gregorian calendar dominates for international exchange.) Less so now than in the past, but Sunday is designated a no-work day in accordance with that tradition. And think how the rest day figures for other calendars, too—the Jewish calendar or the Islamic calendar. If you don’t know the proper rest day, you can be in trouble—and this is even if you’re an outsider: things stop. And if you don’t stop—depending on the degree of observance—you might be punished. And if the community gradually moves away from this, it can be perceived by the more-faithful as cultural weakening. Calendrical rot is threatening!

The traditional Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar that has complicated, intersecting base 10 and base 12 recurring features and indicates certain days as auspicious or inauspicious for various activities. When you combine it with geomantic principles (powers or traits related to compass directions—feng shui), which happens naturally, as feng shui is tied to the solstices and equinoxes, which are calendrical as well as astronomical occurrences, boom, that’s a whole lot of Chinese folk culture you’ve got—and, like the Chinese writing system, it spread to Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.

In Japan (and probably in other East Asian countries, but Japan’s the one I know about), magical powers were attributed to people who could advise on and manipulate the calendar—something that required some good math skills, what with those mixed number bases and various repeating units. If you’ve ever seen the film Onmyōji, you’ve seen the story of one famous example of such a person, Abe no Seimei. In Ninefox Gambit, this magic translates to the “exotic effects” that can be generated in war, relying on the calendar. These same effects don’t work if the calendar is subverted—beware calendrical rot!

There’s one notable instance in Ninefox Gambit in which the protagonist manipulates the heretics’ calendar to gain a tactical advantage—Buuuuuut I can’t spoil it.

This isn’t a review of the book—I have one of those at Goodreads, covering some of the same territory, but in less detail—it’s more of an appreciation of this one aspect of the book. It’s me saying “I SEE WHAT YOU DID HERE, YOON HA LEE! VERY CLEVER!”

Comments

[sovay]

If you’ve ever seen the film Onmyōji, you’ve seen the story of one famous example of such a person, Abe no Seimei.

I still need to see that! Someone on LJ—I think it must have been you—once showed me photographs of the lead actor, who was as beautiful as a half-fox should be.

I love the innovation of the calendars of the hexarchate.

[asakiyume]

It could have been me, or it might have been rachelmanija; I think she's seen it too.

I'm hoping for more calendrical maneuvers in the next book.

[zyzyly]

It is the year 2560 in Thailand.

[asakiyume]

Does Thailand use the Buddhist calendar? That's another good, complicated calendar.

[cmcmck]

It was the same in Europe although they called them astrologers- casting horoscopes based on birth time and place was a huge industry.

I've just finished reading an Italian study of Clelia Farnese and the only reason her birth date is known (she was illegitimate) is that here birth horoscope survives

[asakiyume]

One thing I love about horoscopes is how they require a connection with the sky and astronomy; it's a way of insisting (even if it goes against evidence based in reality) on a connection between celestial happenings and those on earth.

That's very cool about the birth horoscope being the way that Clelia Farnese's birth date is known.

[khiemtran]

If you're at all interested in the heavens, it soon becomes obvious that all human calendars are an imperfect match to the natural world. A day is not really twenty four hours. A year is not 365.25 days. The celestial poles do not stay in the same place, and even the pole stars change. And even if you stay in the same place, you may find that noon occurs fractionally earlier or later, as the continent you're on has drifted.

How must people have felt when they first realised that their calendars were out, and you know, this doesn't just feel like winter, it is winter, but it should be be only autumn...

[asakiyume]

I can definitely see how, noticing that the heavens were out of whack with earth, or vice versa, at least according to what the calendar was saying, you'd want someone who could put that to rights, whether by interleaving an intercalary month or some other means--and then I can imagine feeling awe at the abilities of the person who could do that.

As it is, I'm always impressed when my husband can translate from a era date in pre Meiji Japan, to a date in the Gregorian calendar. It's not so hard to do it for current Japanese era dates as they coincide with the accession of the emperor, but back in the day they'd change them during a reign sometimes.