Update on the Chinese Almanac in year 2024 甲辰年
In earlier articles, I have talked about how to read the Chinese almanac and where to start with. This year 2024, the 甲辰年(Jia Chen year 🪵🐲) I am going to update the latest information that is in this brand new Chinese almanac.
甲辰年通勝更新如下：
First we start with the spring cow drawing, the cow boy is on the right hand side of the spring cow, and he is in the image of a young kid and with shoes.
春牛圖, 芒神在春牛左邊, 孩童形象。
As we read the writing in the bottom part of this page, it wrote something like this:
– The first Chen day is the first day of the new year since it said there is only one dragon (Chen 辰 ~ the earthly branch), this indicates the dryness of the coming year weather, this is particular important for a country with agricultural economy.
一龍治水，龍為辰，初一辰日，寓意來年雨水偏少。
– 8th days to Shen day (辛日), Shen in heavenly stems has a meaning of jewelry and precious stones, when taking the meaning to another level, this means the economic activities, how active and positive it can possibly be in the coming months. 8 is a relatively high figure as the most is 10.
八日得辛，初八為首個辛日，辛在天干為珠寶，寓意來年經濟增長正面。
– 10th days to Chou day (丑日), Chou in earthly branches mean cows, when further interpreting it, it can mean the employment rate within the society, this has direct interference with the overall economics performance for this coming year. 10 is the biggest figure, which means a lot of people are employed to work.
十日得丑，初十為首個丑日，丑在地支為牛，寓意社會上的勞動力，十是最大數，甲辰年將會有龐大勞動人口。
The concept of the Emperor in ancient chinese society 中國古代皇帝概念
When we flip through the Chinese Almanac, it is easy to see the concept of ancient emperors throughout various aspects in the Chinese Almanac. To find out the answer, we have to understand how the people from the ancient society think and what do they know what their emperors were.
The most popular must be the ‘Yellow Emperor’, the almanac even has its own fortune telling method base him. According to history, the concept of emperor can be traced as early as 3500 years ago in Shen Dynasty 商朝. Philosophers in ancient times agreed that the emperors were sent from their God and he came to rule their clan on behalf of their mighty God. Therefore, all the land that they can reach or anything on the piece of land belongs to their emperor. Not only his population has to absolutely obey their emperor, even neighbouring countries has to agree with his power or else they will be treated as barbarians.
Base on this faith or belief, the concept of emperor is being run through the almanac from the past until present today, which is easy to accept by the majority of the people.
當翻看通書，發現皇帝一詞常出現。要知道背後原因，先要了解在那個年代，皇帝一詞對人民們的意義。
通書裡，有一門占卜為生在皇帝那裏，便可預知一生禍福。 皇帝一詞最早在3500年前商朝，那個時代，人們相信皇帝是上天派來來管理他們。 所以所有眼見土地都歸皇帝，鄰國只可來朝。
從這個角度，皇帝是最崇高最完美的象徵。
三世書由來 Triple life bible
Triple life bible, is an ancient book handed down to present from the old days, as old as a few thousand years ago and it is still widely used in Chinese Almanac.
This triple life concept was once originated from buddhist. It is talking about our past, present and future lives. How can the three different stages interacting with each other. This may sounds strange to some people but this way of thinking has actually been circulated for all these years and solidly affecting many generations.
This bible is aim at easy to understand and no complicated skills when using it, therefore it is particularly suitable for the majority of people to read and use. It uses drawings, tables and easy understanding language to present the results. This is often referring to the twelve different Chinese Zodiac signs.
三世書已有很長遠歷史, 到今時今日仍然被人們廣泛使用。
三世書概念來自佛教，它説是過去，現在和將來理念。 人們怎樣才可穿插三個人生階段。 這個想法雖然聽起來有點覆雜，但這個卻是中國人自古以來的重要思想，
三世書以圖象為主和不需要特別技巧才能讀懂，所以特別適合大普人仕運用。 書中用了大量圖畫，圖表和簡單文字表達訊息，所以長久以都很受人們歡迎。 其中十二生肖是其中重要的主旨。
收。開。閉日 Receive, Open and Close Day
收日
收者。收成之義。又藏納之象。又遇吉星吉宿同日者。最宜娶妻。出行。移徙。入學。納財。收債收置倉庫或埋葬等事。
收貯財物。收買田房。出船捕漁利有攸往。
詞訟～宜我訟人。忌人訟我。又忌放債及架造。修宅忌用三煞方。
Receive Day
Receive has a meaning of harvest, and stored. it’s the time for some achievement enjoy moment. This day is good for weddings, doing trips, house moving, starting education, receiving wealth, debts, rents and funerals.
Buying properties, make rental agreements etc.
For litigations, this is only good when he/she is the suing the party, but not vice versa.
開日
生氣之位。最宜上官入學。架造新屋。移徙出行大吉方。開倉庫。商店交易。堆錢厚祿。開井安灶。宜嫁娶。
惟忌埋葬堆墳。反生禍患。若遇太陽同度之日。主生貴子進田產。
Open Day
Open day stands for a brand new start, a new trend of energy is starting to escalate, so this is an all good sign. This is particularly suitable for career commencement, starting an education, building houses, immigration, trading and weddings.
This day is not suitable for funerals.
If that particular day has lucky stars overlapping such as the sun, then this will has extra blessings energy on falling pregnant and properties.
閉日
閉者。閉塞之義。忌上任經商。移徙出行大凶方。尤忌做屋開新塘。治療針灸。開分店。季月忌遠回。主閉而不通。如入牢獄之意。
此日只宜埋葬。收金聚寳。治鼠穴。收路築牆作廁。築堤基。祭祀合帳事。
Close Day
Close day means closing down and energy is not circulating. This is not a good day for doing business, taking up a new career position, opening new shops, immigration, building new houses and acupuncture.
When the calendar month is earth element, this is particularly not suitable for long distance traveling.
This is a suitable day for funerals, pest control, building pipelines and tomb sweeping.
新屋入伙 (取用法）擇日大略 House moving date
擇日新屋入伙是為取吉利之意。想歲歲平安福到家門。添灯發財。
所以日子方面多取通勝擇日。
以（建。除。滿。平。定。執。破。危。成。收。開。閉）日。
加上月日神煞加臨吉方。成入伙吉日。
日子上忌用（建。破。閉）為主。
及煞遇（四離。火星。晦氣。病符。債𣎴。）等不吉。
喜（天德。月德。天恩。進神）吉神加會。
註💫不用（年月日）破時。
新屋入伙。有神位與祖先位者。接神開位。後生火𤓎🔥旺宅。第一趟爐🔥圓滿甜蜜食為主。
禮成。
This is another important function of the Chinese Almanac
Find the most suitable and auspicious day for house moving or house renovation
House moving and house renovation is a big project and everyone wants the process could be as smooth and trouble free as possible. By looking up the most auspicious day works as a blessing for the activity.
There are twelve different types of days and each has its own function and reference.
Establishment Day 建
Remove Day 除
Full Day 滿
Balance Day 平
Stable Day 定
Initiate Day 執
Destruction Day 破
Danger Day 危
Success Day 成
Receive Day 收
Open Day 開
Close Day 閉
Usually, we like to find the lucky star of the day too. Experts will not use the establishment, destruction and close day.
We will go into more detail in future posts.
龍治水 First Chen Day 辰日
農耕時代天氣好壞。就是來年收成指表。所以農耕流傳「幾龍治水」。「幾牛耕地」。預測天氣對農業收成多寡（占兆）。
又「幾餅分食」。「幾蠶養姑」為社會物品流通（占兆）
New year is an important festival for Chinese society since long time ago. Therefore, all the hints that is going to give messages if the new year is going to be an auspicious and a good one plays a main part.
Agriculture is an important source of income for the society at that time. As a result, they believed when is the very first Chen day is an indicator that is going to tell them if this year is going to have sufficient amount of rain for farming.
Chen, if the third earthly branch among the twelve earthly branches. It represents dragon and the water safe box too. When we look in the Chinese almanac, we can check if the first Chen day is coming on the first day of the new year, or the twelve day.
If the first day (as being shown in the picture below) is Chen, then it means the coming year is going to be relatively dry, on the other hand, if the later the Chen day, the more rain is going to come.
In another word, this is a simple way of future harvest prediction.
