Chinese Almanac

Lunar date

Shows the year, month, and day in the traditional lunisolar calendar. Lunar months follow the moon-phase cycle, and leap months help reconcile months with the seasons; this is more than a different way to write the Gregorian date.

Year, month, and day Ganzhi

Places the date in the 60 Jiazi cycle. The year pillar marks the Ganzhi year, the month pillar changes with seasonal nodes, and the day pillar advances daily. Suitable activities, clashes, and void branches depend on parts of these pillars.

Zodiac animals

The animals are names for the Earthly Branches. The page shows the animals attached to the year, month, and day branches, not only the birth-year animal commonly called one’s zodiac sign.

Nayin

The 60 Jiazi pairs are grouped into 30 traditional Nayin names, such as “Heavenly River Water.” Nayin is a classification label, not a claim that a physical substance or force is present that day.

Suitable and unsuitable activities

These classify activities considered more or less appropriate under traditional rules. They answer “appropriate for what?” rather than rating the whole day. Safety, practical constraints, and professional advice take priority.

Auspicious and inauspicious influences

These are supporting calendar notes derived from the month order and day Ganzhi. Both groups can appear together. Read only those relevant to the activity, and never decide by counting which side has more names.

Clash

A day clashes with the animal belonging to the branch opposite its day branch. A Monkey day, for example, clashes with Tiger because Shen and Yin oppose each other. This does not mean every Tiger person must avoid every activity.

Celestial deity and Yellow or Black Path

Twelve celestial deities rotate according to the month and day branches and are traditionally grouped into Yellow Path or Black Path days. A Yellow Path day can still contain avoidances, and a Black Path day can still contain suitable activities.

Void branches and fetal deity

Void branches are the two Earthly Branches left unpaired within a ten-day xun cycle. The fetal deity records traditional pregnancy-related location taboos. Both have specific contexts and should not be magnified into a general danger signal.

Wealth, joy, fortune, and noble-deity directions

These directions rotate through fixed rules associated with the day stem. They are traditional directional references for ritual and folk practice, not modern wealth forecasts or spatial measurements.

Twenty-eight lunar mansions

The sky is divided into 28 mansions that rotate by day, with a palace, element, animal, and auspiciousness label. This adds another traditional calendar layer but should not override activity-specific guidance on its own.

Solar terms and phenology

The 24 solar terms mark stages in the Sun’s annual cycle. The 72 phenological periods divide each term into three and describe seasonal change through traditional observations of nature. They are not a local weather forecast.

Moon phase

The moon phase describes waxing and waning within the lunar month, including new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter. It marks the Moon’s position within one synodic cycle.

Nine Stars

The Nine Stars rotate through a traditional sequence whose names combine number, color, and element. The value marks a position in that cycle; it is not a score out of nine.

1. Name the exact activity first

   “Find a good day” is too broad. Decide whether the activity is marriage, moving in, opening a business, signing, construction, or travel so that you can find the matching entries.

2. Compare only dates that work in real life

   First remove dates that fail because of people, weather, permits, or safety. Then compare the suitable activities, avoidances, clashes, and relevant influences among the remaining dates.

3. Move to personal date selection only when needed

   A general schedule can stop here. For events involving several people, long commitments, or important rites, add birth details, location, and time of day to a more specific analysis.

The most common Huangli misunderstandings