Korean Yihak - Genius Young Master Cheongjae
Explore the principles of all things through 64 hexagrams
Daily luck via Chinese almanac
Tung Shing is the traditional almanac published annually in Hong Kong and Guangdong, based on the date-selection system of the Qinding Xieji Bianfangshu (1739). It shows the day's Twelve Day Officers, Twelve Deities (Yellow/Black Path), Yi & Ji activities, auspicious and inauspicious spirits, clashes, deity positions (Xi, Cai, Fu, Tai Sui, Tai Shen), Peng Zu proverbs, 28 Mansions, and the fortune of the twelve hours.
The Tung Shing is the traditional almanac published every year in Hong Kong, Macau, and the Guangdong region; its original name is Tung Shu (通書). In Cantonese, 'shu' (書, book) sounds identical to 'syu' (輸, to lose), so to avoid the losing homophone it came to be called Tung Shing — 'winning through in everything.'
The ancestor of the almanac is the Shixian Shu (時憲書) — the imperial calendar (皇曆/黃曆) compiled by the court's Imperial Astronomical Bureau and promulgated by the emperor. After the Song dynasty, folk editions flourished with printing; in the Qianlong era of the Qing, licensed private editions were permitted when official prints fell short, fixing the form of an 'encyclopedic almanac' that also carried household knowledge.
In Hong Kong, the Tung Shing lines of the Guangdong Chung Dao Tong (崇道堂, Lo Chuen-lit lineage) and Choi Jan Bo Tong (蔡真步堂, the Choi Pak-lai family) are the most renowned, and buying the new year's Tung Shing around the New Year remains a seasonal scene to this day.
To correct the wildly divergent fortune rulings among almanacs, the Qing court in 1739 (Qianlong 4) ordered some thirty to forty officials — Yunlu (允祿), Mei Juecheng (梅瑴成), He Guozong (何國宗) and others — to compile the 36-scroll Qinding Xieji Bianfangshu (欽定協紀辨方書). With a preface written by the Qianlong Emperor himself and inclusion in the Siku Quanshu, it is the imperially sanctioned standard of date-selection (擇吉) learning.
The book's hallmark is that it sifted out the tangled multitude of spirit-and-bane (神煞) theories and reorganized fortune by the logic of five-element generation and conquest. The skeleton found in today's Tung Shing — the Jianchu Twelve Gods, the Twelve Day Officers, the yi-ji lists, the Pengzu Baiji — carries on this tradition.
A Tung Shing day is first read through the Jianchu Twelve Gods (建·除·滿·平·定·執·破·危·成·收·開·閉). These are twelve 'duty officers' (值) fixed by the day's ganzhi and the month commander: 建 is establishment, 除 is removal, 滿 is fullness, 破 is breakage — each marks the day's character.
Over this are layered the Twelve Day Officers (十二天神): Qinglong, Mingtang, Jinkui, Tiande, Yutang, and Siming are the six Yellow Path (黃道) auspicious spirits; Tianxing, Zhuque, Baihu, Tianlao, Xuanwu, and Gouchen are the six Black Path (黑道) malign spirits. The phrase 'yellow-path lucky day' (黃道吉日) comes straight from this — and the two systems together decide the day's tenor.
The flower of the Tung Shing is its list of yi (宜, fitting deeds) and ji (忌, deeds to avoid). Dozens of matters — 祭祀 sacrifice, 祈福 prayer, 嫁娶 marriage, 開市 opening business, 動土 breaking ground, 入宅 moving in, 安葬 burial — are marked fit or unfit by that day's combination of lucky spirits and malign banes.
The day's seated auspicious spirits (吉神) and malign banes (凶煞), together with the Pengzu Baiji (彭祖百忌) — traditional aphorisms listing taboos by ganzhi combination, like 'on a jia day, do not open the storehouse' — are also printed, sifting the day's finer fortunes.
The Tung Shing governs space as well as time. Chongsha (沖煞) names the zodiac animal and direction clashed by the day's qi; Shenwei (神位) marks the directions where the joy god, wealth god, fortune god, Tai Sui, and the birth spirit reside.
Add the assignment of the Twenty-Eight Mansions (二十八宿) overhead and the hour-by-hour fortune of the twelve double-hours, and the Tung Shing's answer is complete: on which day, at which hour, facing which direction, do what.
Pick a date or look at today, and the day's lunar date and ganzhi are converted by orthodox calendrical reckoning; on one screen you get the Jianchu Twelve Gods and Yellow/Black Path ruling, the yi-ji items, lucky spirits and malign banes, the clashing zodiac and direction, the spirit positions, the Pengzu Baiji, the Twenty-Eight Mansions, and the fortune of each double-hour.
Calendrical conversion uses the verified lunar engine (lunar-javascript), and the display follows the item structure of the Tung Shu tradition descended from the Qinding Xieji Bianfangshu.
The Tung Shing's fortunes are judgments of a date-selection tradition accumulated over centuries — not physical law. Even on a day marked 'ji,' preparation and care matter more in reality; for major schedules, put real-world conditions first and treat this as a reference.
Qinding Xieji Bianfangshu (1739, in the Siku Quanshu) date-selection system — Jianchu Twelve Gods, Twelve Day Officers (Yellow/Black Path), yi-ji lists, lucky spirits & malign banes, clashing directions, spirit positions, Pengzu Baiji, Twenty-Eight Mansions; Tung Shu (Tung Shing) calendrical tradition; lunar-javascript lunar engine
Divine will via moon blocks
Draw one of 60 sacred lots
Quick fortune via 6 palaces
Fate via Chinese characters
Lucky directions via Ming Gua
The Tung Shing is the traditional almanac published every year in Hong Kong, Macau, and the Guangdong region; its original name is Tung Shu (通書). In Cantonese, 'shu' (書, book) sounds identical to 'syu' (輸, to lose), so to avoid the losing homophone it came to be called Tung Shing — 'winning through in everything.'
To correct the wildly divergent fortune rulings among almanacs, the Qing court in 1739 (Qianlong 4) ordered some thirty to forty officials — Yunlu (允祿), Mei Juecheng (梅瑴成), He Guozong (何國宗) and others — to compile the 36-scroll Qinding Xieji Bianfangshu (欽定協紀辨方書). With a preface written by the Qianlong Emperor himself and inclusion in the Siku Quanshu, it is the imperially sanctioned standard of date-selection (擇吉) learning.
A Tung Shing day is first read through the Jianchu Twelve Gods (建·除·滿·平·定·執·破·危·成·收·開·閉). These are twelve 'duty officers' (值) fixed by the day's ganzhi and the month commander: 建 is establishment, 除 is removal, 滿 is fullness, 破 is breakage — each marks the day's character.
Tung Shing(通勝), Korean Yihak - Genius Young Master Cheongjae, Jiaobei(擲筊), Liushijiazi(六十甲子籤), Xiao Liu Ren(小六壬), Cezi(測字), Ming Gua(命卦)