Date SelectionAccording to Chinese date selection techniques there are two type of bad days that are considered to be very inauspicious --- the Year Breaker and the Month Breaker.
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Every year, month, day and time is represented by a Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch combinations in the Chinese Solar Calendar. There are altogether 60 combinations and are often called the 60 Jia Zi.
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When the Earthly Branch of the year clashes ( Zodiac animal vs Zodiac animal ) with the Earthly Branch of the day that day is considered a bad day or Year Breaker.
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Likewise, when the Earthly Branch of the month clashes with the Earthly Branch of the day that day is considered a bad day or Month Breaker.
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Generally, the year and month breakers are not used for auspicious purposes; but certain year and month breakers are allowed in exceptional circumstances.
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Day Breaker is the most inauspicious time period ( 2-hourly period ) of the day. Generally, auspicious activities such as engagement, marriage, signing agreement, and house warming during this time period are avoided.
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Personal Clash Days are days where the earthly branch of the day clash with the earthly branch of the birth year of the person. Such a day is considered as a highly inauspicious.
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Other inauspicious days include the Four Extinct and Departure Days, the No Wealth or Impoverish Days, and Master Killing Days.
Master Killing Days are eliminated for renovation and moving, but are acceptable for other activities. No Wealth or Impoverish Days are not auspicious for wealth or business activities. |
There are many date selection techniques. The methods listed in Xie Ji Bian Fang Shu 协纪辨方书 as commissioned by Emperor Qian Long ( 1711 - 1799 CE ) are by no means complete. Other methods continue to flourish such as the Grandmaster Dong Superior Days, and the Purple White method.
The 12 Day Officer method is usually used in conjunction with the daily positive and negative Shens or Energies. The Great Sun Formula makes use of the directional relationship of the 24 Knots and Qi (24 sub-seasons). |
The 12 Day Officers method is a simple system that is based on the concept that each day is governed or influenced by a certain type of Qi. There are altogether 12 types of Qi that are repeated every 12 days, albeit with exceptions; hence the term, 12 Day Officers.
The 12 types of Qi have names and follow a fixed sequence. They are Establish, Divest, Full, Balance, Stable, Initiate, Destruction, Danger, Success, Receive, Open and Close. Establish is the leader of group, and it falls on the day where the earthly branch is the same as the earthly branch of the month. |
Only Success Day and Destruction Day have clear-cut positive and negative aspects respectively. The others have both positive and negative aspects, and the trick is to match the correct day to the right activities.
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As the name suggest, Establish Day is suitable for starting a new job or negotiating to start a new business, proposing marriage ( not the marriage itself ), starting school, commencing a trip, kicking off a business plan, signing up for a study course, and also for starting construction work ( but not ground-breaking ). It is however not a good day for funeral or burial.
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Remove Day can be used to start demolition work on a building, and conduct a sale to get rid of old stocks. It can be used for cleansing activities or getting rid of something ( including the unseen ).
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Full Day is a good day for signing contracts, and official openings. It is also a good day for holding a house warming party, marriage, and debt-collection.
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Balance Day is suitable for activities that have a win-win outcome such as marriage, starting construction or commencing on a trip. It is also good for business negotiation, and especially good if you do not have the upper hand.
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Stable Day or Set Day is good for activities with intended long lasting outcome. It is also good for official opening, hiring key staff, and seeking medical treatment. It is not suitable for funerals, burial and travelling for obvious reasons.
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Initiate Day is suitable for starting a new project, accepting assignments, opening business or starting renovation works. It is not suitable for traveling or moving as ‘initiate’ implies that the activity starts and never ends!
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Destruction Day is suitable for demolishing a building or structure. It is not suitable for most other activities.
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Danger Day is not suitable for most activities that have an element of danger. It is however suitable for religious activities and groundbreaking.
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Success Day is full of positive energy, and is suitable for most activities including burial !
However, avoid breaking up and divorces. |
Receive Day is a good day to try to close a sale, ask for a raise, request a big favour, learn something or propose marriage. It is also a good day to commence a course or start a job. It is not suitable for burials or medical treatment.
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Open Day is good for official opening, house warming, marriage and business functions. It is also a good day for commencing a course or to assume a new position, but not suitable for burial or groundbreaking.
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Close Day is generally speaking not a good day, and should not be used for any significant activity.
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Every season has a start-day. The day before the start of spring, summer, autumn and winter are collectively known as the Four Extinct Days. The Qi on these days is believed to be exhausted or stale, and are highly inauspicious for any activity.
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The mid-points of the four seasons are known as the Spring Equinox, Winter Solstice, Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. The four days before these mid-points are called the Four Departure Days. The Qi of these days are also believed to be exhausted or stale, and highly inauspicious.
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Days with the stem branch combination of Ding Hai and Ji Chou are Impoverish or No Wealth Days from the year 2004 to 2013.
These days are highly inauspicious for wealth pursuit activities such as commencing business, finalizing business deals, signing contracts, and the likes. |
An auspicious day is not selected based solely on the above 12 day cycle. Inauspicious days such as Year Breaker, Month Breaker and Personal Clash Day are first marked out before other inauspicious days such as the Four Diverse and Extinct Days, and No Wealth Days are sometimes marked out too. Next, days with positive Qi such as Yearly Virtuous and Wealth Days are given greater consideration.
Finally, the short-listed days may be checked against Grandmaster Dong Superior Days; and the 28 Constellations to arrive at a decision. |
As for Feng Shui, the popular methods include the Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection; and the Seven Direct and Four Extras Heavenly Star Method. The Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection method searches for dates where the Da Gua element number of the four pillars of the year, month, date and time are in harmony based on either the He Tu Combination, Combination of 10 or Five Element Combinations.
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The results are not always the same. A combination of methods such as using Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection for a few auspicious dates, and using the Establish Divest 12 Gods method ( watch out for those dates with good stars ) and the Grandmaster Dong method to make the final selection; might be more reassuring. A date that is normally not slated for moving can be used if there are auspicious and suitable stars on that day.
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Incidentally, the notion of San Sha originates from San He School of Feng Shui, which can be further categorised as Spatial San Sha and Tong-Shu ( Chinese Almanac ) San Sha.
Spatial San Sha focuses on the fact that if one is going to carry out renovation or construction work, the sitting direction of the house should avoid having conflict with the annual San Sha. Tong-Shu San Sha refers to auspicious date selection, and the date selected for the purpose of Feng Shui activities should not be in conflict with the Month's Earthly Branch. |
To avoid Date Selection San Sha ( aka Monthly San Sha ):
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San Yuan School of Feng Shui also has its own system of San Sha. It applies mainly to date selection, especially in Xuan Kong Da Gua’s theory of avoiding San Sha:
The late Grand Master Zeng Zi Nan, who coined the term Xie Zi Fa often used San Sha dates and even San Sha hours to usher in wealth under his so-called Auspicious San Sha Quick Wealth Date Theory 吉三煞速发日课. |
Selecting an auspicious day for engagement or marriage does not guarantee a happy and lasting marriage. It depends a lot more on the couple’s destinies and luck cycles.
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