Chinese almanac, lunar calendar and auspicious days — every entry sourced

Broadly, yes: each is an almanac recording every day's favourable and unfavourable activities, its spirits and its Yellow or Black Path. Mainland China says Huang Li (Lao Huang Li), Taiwan usually says Nong Min Li, Hong Kong says Tung Shing, and Singapore and Malaysia also say Tong Shu. Their entries do not always agree.

The Yellow and Black Paths are twelve day spirits: Azure Dragon, Bright Hall, Golden Casket, Precious Light, Jade Hall and Arbiter of Fate are the Yellow Path; Heavenly Punishment, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Heavenly Prison, Black Tortoise and Gou Chen are the Black Path, worked out day by day following chapter 7 of the Imperial Almanac. In everyday speech a Yellow Path day simply means a good day. The book says the Yellow Path spirits follow the day's other good or bad spirits, so our auspicious days are the days whose listed favourable activities include yours, with the Yellow or Black Path shown alongside.

It is computed from the Imperial Almanac (Xieji Bianfang Shu), compiled by imperial order in the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty: chapters 3–9 give each day's spirits, chapter 10 what each spirit favours or forbids and how good and bad spirits are weighed, and chapter 11 the sixty activities. Our results were checked page by page against 75 pages of the book's monthly tables. Popular almanacs vary and often disagree; we show the basis of every entry, so ours may differ from others.

Lunar dates and solar terms are computed from astronomical ephemerides in Beijing time, with solar-term boundaries accurate to the second, for 1901 to 2100. The stem-branch year changes at the Start of Spring and the month at each solar term, as in BaZi.

You can cast a BaZi chart: enter a birth time and place to see the Four Pillars, Ten Gods, Hidden Stems, Nayin, and luck and annual pillars, with related statements from the classics, each with its source. This content is compiled from classical texts for the study of traditional Chinese culture and is not advice for any decision.

Hold your question in mind and toss three coins six times online as the page guides you (or enter coins you have already tossed); we work out the Na Jia chart with Self and Other lines, Six Relations and Hidden Spirits. Your question stays in your browser and is never sent to the server.