Last revised: 2026-10-18
19 · Divination and day-selection
| English | 中文 | Gloss | Termonline |
|---|---|---|---|
| the twelve day-officers | 建除十二神Divination and day-selection · day-selection | Twelve labels written under the day in the old almanacs — jian, chu, man, ping, ding, zhi, po, wei, cheng, shou, kai and bi — beginning with jian on the day of the month-builder and running through the twelve branches. The scheme is set out in juan 4 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu. | — |
| the twelve deities of the yellow and black paths | 黄黑道十二神Divination and day-selection · day-selection | Twelve deities assigned to the hours by reckoning from the day branch: Qinglong, Mingtang, Tianxing, Zhuque, Jinkui, Tiande, Baihu, Yutang, Tianlao, Xuanwu, Siming and Gouchen — the first six of the yellow path, the last six of the black. See the Xieji Bianfang Shu. | — |
| the six luminaries | 六曜Divination and day-selection · day-selection | Six labels of the old calendrical annotations — shosho, tomoiki, senbu, butsumetsu, taian and shakko — obtained by adding the lunar month and day. They derive from old calendrical annotation. | — |
| clash and the inauspicious direction | 冲煞Divination and day-selection · day-selection | Two items marked under the day in the old almanacs: the clash of the day branch with the year or month branch in use (the six clashes), and the inauspicious direction fixed by the three-harmony groups. Not the same as the opposition of a planet. | — |
| recommended and avoided activities | 宜忌Divination and day-selection · day-selection | The old almanac’s practice of listing under each day two columns of activities, one recommended and one to be avoided, on the basis of the day-officers and the mansion of the day. See the monthly tables in juan 31 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu. | — |
| day deities and omens | 神煞Divination and day-selection · day deities | A class of labels attached to individual days in the old almanacs — Heavenly Pardon, Lunar Virtue, Heavenly Virtue, the four partings, the four severances, month breach, year breach and the like — each reckoned from the stems and branches of year, month and day. See juan 3 and 5 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu. | — |
| Heavenly Pardon | 天赦Divination and day-selection · day deities | The ‘seasonal days of Heavenly Pardon’ of the old almanacs — wuyin in spring, jiawu in summer, wushen in autumn and jiazi in winter. See juan 5 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu, citing the Tianbao Li. | — |
| Lunar Virtue | 月德Divination and day-selection · day deities | Determined by the month-builder together with the day stem: bing in the months yin-wu-xu, ren in shen-zi-chen, jia in hai-mao-wei and geng in si-you-chou. See juan 5 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu. | — |
| Heavenly Virtue | 天德Divination and day-selection · day deities | Determined by the month-builder together with the stems and branches of the month, the combination differing for each of the twelve months. See juan 5 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu, citing the Kanyu Jing. | — |
| the four partings | 四离Divination and day-selection · day deities | The day before each equinox and solstice. See juan 5 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu, citing the Yumen Jing. | — |
| the four severances | 四绝Divination and day-selection · day deities | The day before each of the four beginnings of the seasons. See juan 5 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu, citing the Yumen Jing. | — |
| month breach | 月破Divination and day-selection · day deities | A day whose branch clashes with the month-builder. See juan 3 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu. | — |
| year breach | 岁破Divination and day-selection · day deities | A day whose branch clashes with the year branch. See juan 3 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu. | — |
| the nayin of the sixty-day cycle | 六十甲子纳音Divination and day-selection · nayin | Thirty pairings in which every two of the sixty stem-and-branch combinations take one of the five phases as a name, jiazi and yichou being ‘gold in the sea’. See juan 31 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu, and also the Sanming Tonghui. | — |
← Previous: 18 · Observational instruments (further) ｜ Index ｜ Next: —