0/ In this massive thread I shall talk about how to read one kind of Chinese almanac, or Tongshu 
1.The Chinese almanac or tongshu 通書has a great deal of mystique attached to it; some say it is 5000 years old. This is not true. Although some of the elements of this book are very old, and the style these bks is presented is very conservative, changes have made across time.
2.there is no one “True” almanac; there are numerous local variations. In this post I will be focusing on the style of almanac that is published around Guangdong in China. Nonetheless it is used much further afield, incl. s/e Asia.
3/ These almanacs are characterised by being relatively long and narrow [25 x 12 cm thereabouts] , and printed in a very conservative style-- up till recently most were still stab-sewn by hand.
4/ There are three representatives of this type of book:
- Guang Jing tang 廣經堂 （Hall of broad classics）
- Yongjing Tang 永經堂. (Hall of eternal classics)
- Jubao Lou 聚寶樓, (Hall of Collected treasures)
- Guang Jing tang 廣經堂 （Hall of broad classics）
- Yongjing Tang 永經堂. (Hall of eternal classics)
- Jubao Lou 聚寶樓, (Hall of Collected treasures)
Guangjing Tang and Yongjing tang are ‘franchises’ of the calculations of Mr. Choi Pak Lai (Cai Boli 蔡伯勵) , the premier almanac calculator of Hong Kong, who set these almanacs every year from 1944 till his death in 2018, aged 90. zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%94%A1…
6. His heirs now continue the almanac.
As for Ju Bao lou, This is published on the mainland China. & is endlessly pirated. I know of at least two versions. One version (seen here) is probably for export. It is printed on good paper, has clear type, and is neatly bound.
As for Ju Bao lou, This is published on the mainland China. & is endlessly pirated. I know of at least two versions. One version (seen here) is probably for export. It is printed on good paper, has clear type, and is neatly bound.
7.Another, also called the same name, is printed on poorer quality paper, and is bound in the most abominable fashion imaginable. This book seems to be destined for the internal market in China...
8 for when I was shopping on Taobao, you could get any number of those poor quality editions, and none of the first type, which I can readily get from joss-paper shops in Singapore.
9.First a bit about terminology. The almanacs are commonly called Tongshu, 通書 which literally means “Unobstructed book”—it promises unobstructed access to almost anything that is worth knowing.
10 In a way, it delivers on this promise, for you would be hard-pressed to find a better compilation of folk knowledge.
11.However, the words Tongshu is a homophone for “Lose all”.統輸 The offending word is sometimes replaced by a synonym, the Chinese for “Volume” 卷, Juan; thus it is the Tongjuan 通卷, "Unobstructed Volume“.
12. But it is more commonly called Tongsheng 通勝– Cantonese Tung Shing—literally “Complete Victory”, the title you see in the spine of the Guang Jing Tang almanac
13.Now, on to business. The average almanac is divided into three portions. The first portion is at the front of the book; it is printed entirely in red, and contains information that is applicable to the whole of the year.
14. For example, this rather famous picture , the "spring ox" plays a large role in the consciousness of western observers. In the Chinese world, it is almost a nonentity, a quaint and obscure means of conveying info abt the year to illiterates.
15. BTW, in Singapore, many elderly ppl scrutinize the presence or absence of shoes on the boy next to the ox; they say if he wears shoes, the yr will be hot, but if he does not wear them the yr will be wet. This AFAIK is not supported by any of the chinese bks on the subject.
16/ The second, and by far the bulkiest section is in the middle. It is printed in black, and is basically a miscellany. It contains various useful texts.
17/ The precise content and order varies depending on the almanac, but they include things such as handwriting manuals, amulets etc. the amulet section has been translated here . some publ. make almanacs that abridge this section, or omit it entirely
18 The final section is the calendar itself. We shall focus on this today. <below is a 2-page spread from the calendar>
19.Now, to understand this section you must first know ahow the Chinese calendar works. Much like the western calendar, it is divided into years, months, days and Shi, the Chinese hour, which corresponds to 2 western hours in length.
20.The months don’t really have interesting names They are simply called first month, 2nd month etc.
21.The Chinese calendar is lunisolar. In other words, It attempts to harmonize the motions of the sun and the moon.
22.The months themselves are lunar. The 1st day is the new moon (i.e. you cannot see the moon) the 15th day is the full moon. The months have either 29 or 30 days depending on the length of the lunar cycle. 29-day mths are called "Small" 小; 30-day ones are called "big"大
23.However the calendar tries to reconcile the moon’s cycle with the seasons, so [say] the 1st, 2nd, 3rd months should occur to what the Chinese consider spring etc. This means, an extra month must be added to keep things synchronised. Yrs where this happens thus have 13 months.
24.This solar component used to define the seasons comes in the form of the 24 seasonal terms. They are in effect a tropical zodiac, which has 24 ‘signs’ rather than 12. The sun’s ingress into each one of these ‘terms’ marks a change in the climate;
25/ These seasonal terms are traditionally used by farmers to predict changes in the weather, the sowing of crops etc. two of these terms makes a ‘month’ for astrological purposes, but that's another topic for another time...
26.Now, on to the actual calendar itself. The beginning of each new month is signalled by a large column that declares its name in red letters. In this case it is 六月6th month. Behind it are the entries for the individual days of the mth 1 day per column.
27/ This column contains a lot more information, but in brief:
A/ dates of festivals, god’s birthdays
b/ the month: the inscription literally is “Lunar calendar: 6th Month, Small”; where “small” refers to the month having 29 rather than 30 days.
A/ dates of festivals, god’s birthdays
b/ the month: the inscription literally is “Lunar calendar: 6th Month, Small”; where “small” refers to the month having 29 rather than 30 days.
[28]
c/the zodiac animal associated with each mth (1st mth = tiger, 2nd mth = rabbit and &c; order doesn’t change between yrs).
D/ the [in]auspicious gods and their directions for the mth; useful for construction, as u don’t want to dig in the direction of an inauspicious god
c/the zodiac animal associated with each mth (1st mth = tiger, 2nd mth = rabbit and &c; order doesn’t change between yrs).
D/ the [in]auspicious gods and their directions for the mth; useful for construction, as u don’t want to dig in the direction of an inauspicious god
29/ Note: The red text to the right of the central box says 蔡真步堂 “Choi’s Hall of True Pacing” (that is the name of the company who calc. the almanc); the red text to the right says 蔡伯勵傳人聯編 “By the heirs of Choi Pak Lai”, as the founder Mr. Choi died in 2018 :(
30/ as mentioned above, Each column represents 1 day [trad’l Chinese is written in columns, from right to left, [BTW]. Each column is divided into rows, which tell you smth abt the day in question
30.Here is the tl;dr of what the columns are, from top to bottom:
a)Western [Gregorian ]calendar date
b)Auspicious shensha present for today
c)How [in]auspicious the 12 “shi” (= 2 hr period) of the days are
d)Things u shld not do 忌 today
a)Western [Gregorian ]calendar date
b)Auspicious shensha present for today
c)How [in]auspicious the 12 “shi” (= 2 hr period) of the days are
d)Things u shld not do 忌 today
31/ e)The date in Chinese calese calendar [THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT]
f)Auspicious actifities for today, as well as some additional calendarical info
g)(mixed in with F) inauspicious shensha today
h)Door gods, Ge-s
i)Fetal god’s position.
I will go into more detail below
f)Auspicious actifities for today, as well as some additional calendarical info
g)(mixed in with F) inauspicious shensha today
h)Door gods, Ge-s
i)Fetal god’s position.
I will go into more detail below
32.A) The western calendar date is self-explanatory. For example, the entry for the 1st day of the Chinese mth (1st column from right) reads七月廿一: 7th month, 21st day, or in other words, July 21st. It also has the weekday below, 星期二, Tuesday.
Subsequent entries just mention the date of the mth, the mth name being redundant. The only time the mth name is mentioned again is when the Gregorian mth changes. (eg below, where the chinse chractrs state 廿三， 23rd
33.Notice also the use of the word 廿, which is a rare-ish Chinese character meaning ‘20’ to save space.
34.B) Auspicious shensha. To quote Aylward, shensha are ‘predictable and regulary occurring forces that significantly promote or frustrate human activity’. These shensha can attach themselves to orientations in space, or periods of time.
amazon.co.uk/Imperial-Guide…
amazon.co.uk/Imperial-Guide…
The daily pages of this almanac tabulate the temporal shensha; the spatial ones are tabulated elsewhere. <BTW the Aylward book above, an english translation of the Xiejibian fangshu 協記辦方書, is excellent, even though it is abridged>
36.In broad terms, these shensha , AKA’ Stars’ or ‘gods’ are determined by comparing the Zodiac animal for the day (see below), and comparing it with the zodiac animal for the month. Some are calculated in other ways, but that's another topic...
37/ There are books of tables, which show you what particular shensha occur for a particular day. The Xie Ji Bian Fangshu mentioned above is one such text, but alas Aylward's translation omits most of the relevant tables :(
38.The presence of certain shensha on a certain day determine which activities are [un]suitable for that day. There are also books that show you this information, that you can use to determine an auspicious date...
39 but luckily the average user need not rummage through these massive tomes with consulting them: the [in]auspicious activities have already been tabulated below, in plain Chinese.
39.C) Auspicious hours. Like the dialy shensha mentioned above, tehre are also shensha that attach themselves to hours. Like their daily counterparts, these shensha make a particular hour [in]auspicious.
This is vital info, for a proverb goes “An auspicious year is not as good as an auspicious mth, an aup. Mth is not as gd as an ausp. Day; an ausp. Day is not as good as an ausp. Hour”
41.This section can be easily read. There are 12 Chinese hours each day [see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradition… and to show how they relate to western hours],
42.The auspicious 吉 and middline 中 hrs are marked in red. The evil hrs 凶are marked in black. So, we find that the hr of the rat子 on the 1st day of the mth is auspicious 吉; and the hr of the ox 丑 is inauspicious凶. [read right to left, in columns]
43.D) The inauspicious activities are self explanatory , if you can read chinese. For eg, the 1st day of the 6th mth lists 栽種,Planting seeds and 開市,Trading as inauspicious activities.
44.E) is the most important section. It is a string of 7 Chinese characters, which tell you almost all the info an astrologer needs for the day. For the 1st day of the 6th mth, the characters are 初一乙丑金觜破
45.Let’s break it down. The 1st two characters are simply the day of the mth; so you will find 初一(‘1st day’) on the 1st day of the lunar mth, 初二= “2nd day” on the 2nd day and so on so forth.
46.The 3rd and 4th characters 乙丑, are the heavenly stems and earthly branches for each day; in this case the Earth Ox. Their use will be familiar to anyone who is into bazi etc, as it forms the ‘day pillar’.
47.The 5th character is the day’s concealed element 納音. This is an astrological factor that is attached to each of the terms of the sexagenary cycle. What it is is not really relevant, but is explained in Aylward. In this case, the nayin for today is metal 金。
48.The 6th character is the Lunar mansion for today. 宿. Although the lunar mansions are a set of actual 28 constellations, for the purposes of the almanac they have become merely nominal, a mere cycle of 28 days, as opposed to tracking the passage of the moon...
49/...They are variously coloured red[auspicious] or black [inauspicious]. if you want to learn more about the astronomical lunar mansions see
50.The 7th character is the “Day officer” or “jianchu建除” cycle for today. This is one of the simpler shensha. Put simply, it is a cycle of 12 days, that depends on the EB of today, and the EB of the month.
51.If a day has the same EB as the mth, it is assigned the term 建. If the day’s EB is the next EB after that of the month, it is assigned the term “rid” 除,and so on, for a cycle of 12 terms
52.the terms are:
Establish 建
Remove 除
Fill滿
Level平
Fix定
Catch執
Break破
Danger危
Complete成
Collect 收
Open開
Shut 閉
Establish 建
Remove 除
Fill滿
Level平
Fix定
Catch執
Break破
Danger危
Complete成
Collect 收
Open開
Shut 閉
53.Note that the months used to reckon this cycle are the Solar month (i.e. based on the Seasonal terms, or same ‘months’ as used for bazi) and not the lunar months of the ordinary chinese calendar.
54.Example: The 6th month has EB of 未, Goat.
It follows days with the EB of the goat are assigned “Establish”
Days with Eb of monkey [i.e. the next] are called “rid”
chicken D. are assigned "fill”
Dog D. are assigned Level
Pig D. are assigned Fix etc etc etc.
It follows days with the EB of the goat are assigned “Establish”
Days with Eb of monkey [i.e. the next] are called “rid”
chicken D. are assigned "fill”
Dog D. are assigned Level
Pig D. are assigned Fix etc etc etc.
However, in the 7th Month, which has eb of Ape 申,
Days with EB of monkey are assigned "Establish"
Days with EB of Chicken are assigned "Remove/rid"
[...]
Dats of EB Goat are assigned "shut"
That way, the Day officer attached to a particular EB changes from mth to mth.
Days with EB of monkey are assigned "Establish"
Days with EB of Chicken are assigned "Remove/rid"
[...]
Dats of EB Goat are assigned "shut"
That way, the Day officer attached to a particular EB changes from mth to mth.
56/The term that you MUST LOOK OUT for is the term called 破, “break”. It is always the 7th term away (inclusive) from the month’s EB. Such days are EXTREMELY INAUSPICIOUS, and avoiding such days is itself half the battle won for an electional astrologer.
57.In this case, the 1st day of the 6th month has EB of the Cow 丑; it is 7 EB apart from the Month's EB, the Goat, and as such is a break day and very inauspicious :(
58.This leads us on to section F, which shows the things that are suitable to do today. As you can see, there are not many, namely Seeking doctors, Curing illnesses 求醫治病, and "Demolishing houses and enclosures" 破屋壞垣“.
59/ Note: Demolition is just abt the only thing that is suitable for a break day; and if your almanac's entry contains *only* that term it is a more-or-less certain sign that that day is a rotten one.
60.By contrast, the 2nd and 3rd days of the mth have fat column, with many auspicious activities For the 2nd day, we find things like “meeting friends, marrying, positioning the bed, and conducting burials.
61. Mixed in with the auspicious activties , you will find also additional calendrical information. This is displayed in boxes (in black-on-white type with this edn at least)
62. here is a rough breakdown of the section in question. it seems chaotic, but i will explain some of the things as i go along
62.For example, on the 2nd day of the mth, (see above) we see the words 大暑, one of the 24 seasonal terms. Below it we see the time measured in traditional Chinese units: 申正二刻八分。 “Shen, True, 2 ke, 8 fen”
63.This is worth explaining. The correspondence between the Chinese and hours and days has already been noted, but let us speak abt its subdivisions.
64. Each Chinese “Hour” or “shi” is 120 minutes = 2 western hrs long. If smth happened in the first 60minues, we say it has occurred in the “first”初 part of the hour. If it happened in the last 60 minutes, we say it occurred in the “True” 正 part of the hour.
65.Each Shi時 is divided into 8 ke刻; which makes a Ke exactly 15 minutes long. The Ke used to be defined as being 1/100th of a day (or just about 14 minutes) but this definition has since been abandoned in favor of 1 fen = 15 minutes
66.With that knowledge we can interpret the phrase. It is in the true part of shen, in other words, 4 PM.
It is in the 2nd ke, or the second 15 minute period—4: 30 PM
Finally, it states 8 fen,-- thus 8 minutes. In other words, the sun entered the point of Dashu 大暑 on 4:38 PM
It is in the 2nd ke, or the second 15 minute period—4: 30 PM
Finally, it states 8 fen,-- thus 8 minutes. In other words, the sun entered the point of Dashu 大暑 on 4:38 PM
67/ In other words, the sun entered the point of Dashu 大暑 on 4:38 PM, at the longitude of 120 degrees east [the standard meridian for the almanac]
68/ If a day contains a solar or lunar eclipse, its duration and reckoning are expressed in similar terms. Here is the entry for a solar eclipse, on the 1st day of the 5th mth this year. the entry is circled in red below:
67.In addtitoion to the solar eclipses, the 72 micro-seasons" are mentioned. These 72 Hou 氣候 are divisions of each Seasonal term into 3; each term lasting about 5 days.
68/These terms have been recently popularized in their Japanese forms,
nippon.com/en/features/h0…
but they yet persist -- if only as a calendarical curiosity in China. (Much as the Chinese Penjing 盆景 becomes the Japanese Bonsai)
nippon.com/en/features/h0…
but they yet persist -- if only as a calendarical curiosity in China. (Much as the Chinese Penjing 盆景 becomes the Japanese Bonsai)
68.Right at the bottom of this column we find the inauspicious shensha that are present for today. Like their auspicious counterparts, they show which activities should not be done. Sometimes there are many, other times there are few...
The size of the characters are hence stretched to fit the column, as you can see here cdn-images.lifestyle.rea-asia.com/wp-content/upl…
70 70.The last two columns are more Column H contains two factors. The first is the the Ge 神隔 for the day, and the 2nd is the “Door Star”. 門光星
71. The former is a kind of factor that shows the [in]auspiciousness for certain activities. The full list has been translated here ;
72/.The second factor is the “Door star” In brief, it shows whether it is auspicious or not to repair the door. There are three possible stars, enumerated here
72.The last column at the very bottom is the most curious. It shows the locations of the foetal god 胎神 for a given day. This god protects foetuses. They enter the house on conception, and stay on for a period of time after the child’s birth.
73.This god has an unusual habit: It does not stay at one location, but rather moves about various parts of the house across a 60 day cycle. For example, for today, the god is on the “Pestle, grinder, and toilet” on the 2nd day the "kitchen and stove" etc.
74.It follows, if there are pregnant women or newborns in the house you should not move, or renovate with any location where the foetal god is currently residing. (I presume ordinary use is excepted) for doing so would anger the god, and risk miscarriage.
75.You can see the full table here [albeit in Chinese], again from the Guangjing Tang almanc
76.The foetal god also stays in particular locations for a whole month, which is tabulated at the top row of the above table
77/ Rather astonishingly, animals too have their foetal gods, which play a similar role. unlike the human fetal gods, these animal gods change location only once a mth; & are so listed along with the inausp. gods in the general mthly column.
78/ In brief, the above img (6th lunar mth, 2020) tells us that the
Pig's foetal god resides in the well
Cow's Foetal god is in the hall or field
The Goat's Fetal god is in the storehouse
and the horse fetal god is in the timber pile [?] 枋
Pig's foetal god resides in the well
Cow's Foetal god is in the hall or field
The Goat's Fetal god is in the storehouse
and the horse fetal god is in the timber pile [?] 枋
79So much for my discussion of the almanac. What I have discussed here only applies t one type of almanac; there are many more kinds, of almanac, such as those made in Taiwan, but they are best left for another time
80/ if you want to learn more, these 2 books ( sadlyonly available in Chinese) pub’d by Pak Hok Ming 白鶴鳴 of Hong Kong. are good
1: 白鶴鳴作品(1241)通勝解密The mysteries of the almanac revealed
2. 白鶴鳴作品 第120部－教你查通勝旺家宅 How to read the almanac and prosper.
1: 白鶴鳴作品(1241)通勝解密The mysteries of the almanac revealed
2. 白鶴鳴作品 第120部－教你查通勝旺家宅 How to read the almanac and prosper.
81/ The third book, in english is Martin Palmer’s T’ung shu,
82.For now, if anyone spots any errors, i will be most glad to hear of them
Compare:
84. Here are some examples of things called "Tongshu"通書, to show the regional styles. this first image is an almanac from Taiwan, specifically called 正福堂.( Hall of Upright Fortune). As you can see from the 2nd page, its layout is completely different ...
85 ... from the Hong Kong type featured above, Rather than being arranged into neat columns, you will find a whole mass of information, completely incomprehensible to the beginner. In the future I hope to give instructions as to how this almanac may be read too.
86/ Note that almanacs in such a style have a very long pedigree; here is an example from 1864. books.google.com/books?id=wGwtA…
87/ In turn, the Hong Kong style almanacs are just as ancient. here is one for 1829: books.google.com/books?id=1s5RA…. With the exception of a row for the gregorian calendar on top, the order of the entries, and indeed, overall appearance, has remained largely the same
88/ on the opposite end of the spectrum, here is a sparse, modern almanac, ironically called the 老皇曆"Old Imperial calendar". This almanac, which is cheaply produced in Mainland China, strips all but the barest essentials, & keeps everything in neatly labelled columns.
