Chinese almanac for Monday 1 January 2024

11th lunar month, day 20. A Wood Rat day (Jia Zi, 甲子), in a Wood Rat month (Jia Zi, 甲子) and a Water Rabbit year (Gui Mao, 癸卯).

Day officer
Establish day (Jian, 建)
Ruling spirit
Golden Casket (Jin Kui, 金匮), a yellow-path, lucky day
Clashes
People born in Horse years (马: 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014, 2026). The sha (煞) lies south.

Good for

Trading (交易), Taking in new household members (进人口), Offerings and worship (祭祀), Ritual bathing (沐浴), Catching pests (捕捉), Placing the body in the coffin (入殓), Taking off mourning clothes (除服), Putting on mourning clothes (成服), Burials (安葬), Thanking the earth after building (谢土), Opening a grave for reburial (启钻), Repairing a grave (修坟)

Avoid

Taoist fasting rites (斋醮), Moving into a new home (入宅), Building and repairs (修造), Breaking ground (动土), Breaking ground for a grave (破土)

The good-for and avoid lists come from the open-source lunar calendar library (6tail), whose author built them from a popular Chinese calendar website’s data. Almanacs differ on these lists, and unlike the rest of this site they are not quoted from a classical text. How the rest is worked out

The hours, on the clock in Kuala Lumpur

Almanacs give the hours by the sun: the Horse hour is 11 to 1, when the sun is highest. In Kuala Lumpur today the sun runs 77 minutes behind the clock, so on your clock the Horse hour is 12:17–14:17. The table is already converted. Why

HourClock timeLuckClashes
Rat (子)00:17–02:17LuckyHorse (马)
Ox (丑)02:17–04:17LuckyGoat (羊)
Tiger (寅)04:17–06:17UnluckyMonkey (猴)
Rabbit (卯)06:17–08:17LuckyRooster (鸡)
Dragon (辰)08:17–10:17UnluckyDog (狗)
Snake (巳)10:17–12:17UnluckyPig (猪)
Horse (午)12:17–14:17LuckyRat (鼠)
Goat (未)14:17–16:17UnluckyOx (牛)
Monkey (申)16:17–18:17LuckyTiger (虎)
Rooster (酉)18:17–20:17LuckyRabbit (兔)
Dog (戌)20:17–22:17UnluckyDragon (龙)
Pig (亥)22:17–00:17UnluckySnake (蛇)

Lucky or unlucky by the spirit ruling the hour: six walk the yellow path and are lucky (Green Dragon, Bright Hall, Golden Casket, Heavenly Virtue, Jade Hall, Keeper of Fate); the other six walk the black path.

This day for each day master

BaZi reads a day by what its stem is to your day master, and a month by the month’s stem. This day’s stem is Yang Wood (Jia, 甲); this month, the Wood Rat month (Jia Zi, 甲子), has Yang Wood (Jia, 甲). Each links to what the classics say about it. Don’t know your day master? Read each day against your whole chart

The Peng Zu taboos

A rhyme every almanac prints: one line for the day’s stem, one for its branch.

Jia days: do not open the storehouse, or goods and money drain away. (甲不开仓财物耗散)

Rat days: do not consult a diviner, or you bring trouble on yourself. (子不问卜自惹祸殃)

God of Joy (Xi Shen, 喜神): northeast. God of Wealth (Cai Shen, 财神): northeast. God of Fortune (Fu Shen, 福神): north.

Choosing a date