General concepts

Tong Shu (Chinese almanac)

Also known as: tong shutung shingtung sing通書通书通勝通胜huang li黃曆黄历lao huang li老黃曆chinese almanacchinese almanac 2027chinese calendar good daysauspicious daysauspicious datesgood days to get marriedauspicious wedding datesgood day to move housedate selectionze ri擇日nong min li農民曆

The Tong Shu (通書, "book of all things"), also called Tung Shing in Cantonese or Huang Li, the "yellow calendar", is the traditional Chinese almanac: a day-by-day calendar that gives each date its stem and branch, its Day Officer, the animal it clashes with and lists of activities the tradition considers suitable or best avoided.

The Tong Shu (通書) is the Chinese almanac. In Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia it is often called Tung Shing (通勝), a Cantonese name that replaces the word shu, "book", because it sounds like the word for "losing". In mainland China the same kind of book is known as Huang Li (黃曆, the "yellow calendar") or Lao Huang Li, and in Taiwan as Nong Min Li (農民曆, the "farmers' calendar"). Every edition is a calendar first. It gives the Gregorian date, the lunar date, the twenty-four solar terms and, for every day, its pillar of the sixty-day cycle: one Heavenly Stem over one Earthly Branch.

On top of the calendar, the almanac prints the traditional labels of each day. The most common are the Day Officer (one of the twelve officers 建除十二神, from Jian, "Establish", to Bi, "Close"), the animal the day clashes with and the direction of the day's Sha (煞), one of the twenty-eight lunar mansions, and two short lists: 宜 (yi), what the day suits, and 忌 (ji), what it is better to avoid. Families have long looked up these lists before a wedding, a move to a new home, the opening of a shop, the signing of an important document or a long journey. The practice of choosing a day in this way is called ze ri (擇日), date selection.

The lists are not invented anew each year. They are calculated from fixed rules. The Day Officer depends on the branch of the month and the branch of the day, the clash on the branch of the day, and the other day spirits on the month, the season or the stems. The great reference work behind most modern almanacs is the Xieji Bianfang Shu (《欽定協紀辨方書》), a manual compiled for the Qianlong court in 1739 to put the many older schools of date selection in order. Its eleventh chapter, "用事", lists for each activity which day spirits are favourable and which ones should be avoided.

Because the rules are many, two almanacs can list slightly different good days for the same event. One edition may weigh a spirit more heavily than another, add a family or regional custom, or tailor the list to the birth year of the people involved. This is why a date-selection master usually starts from the almanac and then looks at the people concerned.

The Tong Shu is a cultural tradition, not a science. It describes what the tradition assigns to a day. It does not show that a day helps or harms anything, and there is no evidence that a date chosen this way changes how an event turns out. Many people consult it as a link with family custom, out of respect for older relatives or simply as part of the celebration.

AstroSensus has a free Tong Shu calendar for 2027. It calculates every day, with no AI and no account: the day pillar, the month by the solar terms, the Day Officer, the clashing animal and the Sha direction. For five events, a wedding, moving house, opening a business, signing a contract and travel, it shows only what one named table says: the lines of chapter 11 of the Xieji Bianfang Shu, and only the Day Officers those lines name. The days are counted in China Standard Time (UTC+8), which is also the clock of Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Next to the dates there is always a clear note that this is a tradition, not advice.