Date Selection

Date Selection using the TongShu Almanac

If there is help available why not? This reasoning is all the more correct when we are embarking on some major move that will affect our lives and well being. For this reason also, we would select a good date for the conduct of our affairs.

Every society has their particular selection methods with the chinese seeming to have myriad ways to select suitable dates. There are the special doors, three cycles, mystical dimensions and more.

I believe that the purpose of study is to educate ourselves. In older times, knowledge were limited to the very few. Only the upper class and the rich had this privelege. At the same time, the texts and mateerials available were not that many so it always was the same texts being core study material. In some sort of a way, society became shaped and the psyche of that society conditioned, which is not necessarily a good thing.

The same is happening today. The TongShu or chinese almanac is ubiquitous in chinese homes. I remember as a young child, a scholarly old man told me that it is a talisman and hanging one in the home acts as a protection against harmful spirits. My parents and grandparents said the same thing, most probably because they heard it from him too. Of course I believed him because he was once a titled scholar before he fled china after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Later I learnt that such power ascribed to the almanac is that within it are magical writings as well as codes containing the secrets of the universe.

The singular most important use of the almanac is the calendar. It may be strange that this calendar is found at the back of the book. Well you see, it is meant to be the final conclusion or distillation of all the writings, wisdom and formula before it. One thing to note though is that the chinese almanac is read right to left. English books are read the other way so front becomes back and back becomes front.

The calendar found at the ‘back’ of the almanac is a lunar calendar. Fortunately they have elected to include the western gregorian calendar as well so we will know exactly ‘when’ we are. Fortunate really if not we would have no idea at all where we would be in our real world time. The unfortunate thing though is that they are all in chinese characters!

Many of the ‘astrologers’ practising today use the almanac as the basis for date selection. It is the astrologers’ basic tool. In calling him or her an astrologer is not exactly correct. Maybe it is more correct to call him a time selection specialist but for convenience, let’s just call him an astrologer.

Many books are now out in english that shows us how to select dates. Before gleefully using the methods that are shown, it is good to know how the calendar came about.

The chinese calendar compiled today is based on the Xieji-Bianfang Shu or Treatise on Harmonising time and Distinguishing directions. Take away its high sounding language it really means that it is a guide to selecting times and orientation. The time here means a good date and orientation is used in houses and burials.

It was compiled during the time of the famous Qing emperor QianLong and completed in 1740. The compilers were the astronomy unit which comes under the Board of Rituals.

What is important for us to know is that the reason for this compilation was that the early works were found to be full of errors and also there were many conflicting ideas on the subject. As an aside it also goes that there were many conflicting ideas too about astrology as a whole. Now, this is very important. The treatise is a compilation of scholarly works and it goes to say that the chief guy in charge eventually gets to decide what is right and wrong. We can safely assume that the emperor is no astrologer and leaves that to the head of the board of rituals. He is certainly a very powerful man but there is nothing to say that this treatise is not error prone.

What has this got to do with us? Well, if you are one who cannot live without consulting the almanac, just remember that you maybe relying on an error ridden work!

The other thing that we have to know is that the book is based on certain fixed longtitude to derive the calculations. How accurate it is to you, assuming all others are correct will depend on where you are located. Kuala Lumpur is at 113° longtitude which is about 28 minutes behind if we use 120° as the base line of calculations. So you may like to take note of this. However the system does not emphasise the sun and the moon but the bevy of stars and constellations.

Having talked about the time adjustment, there is another point that needs to be considered. The astrology as used by the chinese is not strictly an astronomy work. No doubt the constellations and stars as seen in the sky are used but the impact of these cosmic entities is not the same as that used by the western astrologer. In a way you can say that the almanac is derived from a coded guide left behind by the ancient observers. How accurately the later day astrologers have decoded them is open to question.

The most common way most common folk use to check on a good day is the 12 cycles (twelve shen of the day). That is why you will hear someone saying this is and ‘open’ day which is a good day or that this is a ‘broken’ day which means that it is not a good day. You may like to know that all the days within the year are divided into twelve types. They go in a cylce. You have to ask yourself the question “Is it that simple? If so, how can my life be governed by something like that?”

The other way is that of looking at the colors of the ink used to print the words. A good day is marked by the color red. In many respects it is correct as red signifies a general all round benevolence of the energies in play for that day. Of course this good or bad is based on the mathematics used in compiling the calendar. In other words, if there is an error on day one, then that error carries through making all the rest wrong. Also, if one use the wrong theory, then all the answers are going to come out wrong.

One last thing to remember is that the calendar was and still is very agricultural and feudal based in tone. Many of the activities are rather ritual based. For examples activities like setting the mill and washing the hair. If you are content with using the almanac for its face value, what you can do is to look deeper into the relationship between the activity and the reason why this activity is no good. Most of it will be related to the twelve cycles. (The twelve cycles depict major events of a feudal community and at another time we can talk about this).

The ancient astrologers’ favorite pastime is to observe the changes in nature and attempt to correlate this to human life with the purpose of predicting the cycles of life. Through knowing at which point of the cycle one is at, preparations and plans can be made to ensure a smoother journey. Likewise, we can do the same. If we are to have the best out of life, we have to make use of the resources that we have. In taking lessons from the almanac, it is not about looking for red days or auspicious astrological dates to do anything but as a tool for self development.

The world is constantly changing. Global warming is here and what is written happen in the almanac may not be accurate anymore. To the believer of the almanac, that person will have to look at the things happening around him and relate that to the almanc to reposition oneself within this space and time continuum. The most powerful force around is still the force of the human will.

In date selection and in fengshui, the true basis is the continuous cycle of all things. Date and site selection is not to be based on some archaic formula or can be decided by a set of formulas or a round compass. It has to be based on available circumstances, the characteristics and factors in play at that point in time and space. This is true.