How the Almanac's Favourable and Unfavourable Activities Are Decided

In short

An almanac's favourable and unfavourable activities are not written by feel. Following the Imperial Almanac (Xieji Bianfang Shu), they come from four steps: work out which spirits govern the day, look up what each spirit favours or forbids, settle what happens when good and bad spirits meet, and finally post the result onto the sixty activities of the almanac. This site works through these four steps for every day.

Step 1: the day's spirits

Chapters 3 to 9 give how each spirit is found: some by the year, some by the month, some by the day's stem and branch, some by the solar terms. Heavenly Virtue, Monthly Virtue and Heavenly Pardon are good spirits; Monthly Aversion, Robbery Sha and Disaster Sha are bad ones. A single day usually has several of each. The book says that, broadly, more good spirits make a good day and more bad spirits a bad one, and then each spirit's own preferences are followed:

大抵凡日吉神多則吉凶神多則凶又各視其神之宜忌以為趨避

— Imperial Almanac (Xieji Bianfang Shu), 建除十二神

Step 2: what each spirit favours or forbids

Chapter 10 records, spirit by spirit, which activities each favours and forbids: one good spirit favours sacrifices and prayers for blessings, one bad spirit forbids weddings and travel. On this site every favourable or unfavourable activity lists the spirits behind it; tap any activity in the almanac to see them.

Step 3: when good and bad spirits meet

This is the crucial step. Chapter 10 grades the bad spirits by severity: some are cancelled when a Virtue spirit falls on the same day; for some, good and bad cancel out, so their forbidden activities are not marked favourable and their favoured activities are not marked unfavourable; and some still forbid everything even with a Virtue spirit present. For example:

子午夘酉月值天吏夘酉月與月德併午月與月德合併凡所忌者則不註宜所宜者亦不註忌不與徳合併如常例

— Imperial Almanac (Xieji Bianfang Shu), 卷十

卯酉月值災煞又值月厭雖與德合併仍諸事皆忌

— Imperial Almanac (Xieji Bianfang Shu), 卷十

So the same bad spirit can lead to quite different results in different months and with different good spirits. This is where the occasional "nothing is favourable" day comes from.

Step 4: posting onto the sixty activities

Finally the posting rules turn the result into specific activities. They are detailed: for instance, on a Ding day haircuts are forbidden, so grooming is not marked favourable either:

凡丁日忌剃頭亦不註宜整容

— Imperial Almanac (Xieji Bianfang Shu), 卷十

The activities in popular use are the "sixty activities of the almanac", and this site posts its entries onto these. For some activities the book says there is no particularly favourable day: they can be done on any day that does not forbid them:

遠迴乘船渡水無宜日除所忌之外無日不宜也

— Imperial Almanac (Xieji Bianfang Shu), 卷十一

• The sixty activities: what each one means ›

How this site checks its results

Chapters 20 to 31 contain month-by-month tables that state each day's activities directly. This site's results were checked page by page against 75 scanned pages of those tables; where the tables disagree with the text, or with each other, the text and the majority of table pages decide. Popular almanacs vary and often disagree; when this site differs from another almanac, open any activity to see its basis.

• The Imperial Almanac: the basis of this site ›
• Chinese almanac ›