Animal Sign: Are you a Horse or Goat?

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

Let’s take someone born on 31st Jan 1979. Is this person born under the Chinese zodiac sign of the horse or goat? Not sure?

The confusion arises because the Chinese uses two popular calendar systems, the solar as well as the lunar calendar. They are also known as the LuniSolar or YinYang Calendar. The first day of the solar calendar starts on or around the 4th Feb every year in conjunction with the Start of Spring while the first day of the lunar calendar can start between late January and late February. Click on the calendar links above to find out why it is so.

From a Chinese Solar Calendar perspective, someone born on the 31st Jan 1979 belongs to the previous year animal sign (Horse) as the current year animal sign (Goat) only takes effect on the 4th Feb. However from a Chinese Lunar Calendar perspective, this person is most definitely a Goat as the Chinese Lunar New Year started on 28th Jan 1979.

Why is this important? In many Chinese metaphysics study such as Chinese Astrology and Feng Shui, we need to know the yearly zodiac sign.

Most system of Feng Shui such as the Eight Mansions and Flying Stars uses the Chinese Solar Calendar. So does Ba Zi, a popular system of Chinese Astrology.

On the other hand, Zi Wei Dou Shu, a less popular but also highly accurate system of Chinese Astrology uses the Chinese Lunar Calendar exclusively.

What can go wrong if we use the wrong animal sign? A lot.

For example if you use the Eight Mansions Feng Shui system and you get the animal sign and year wrong, you could end up sleeping in all the wrong directions. Liu Sha (Six Killings) or Jue Ming (End of Life) instead of Sheng Qi (Living Breathe) or Tian Yi (Heavenly Doctor)!

It can get far worse if you say use Zi Wei Dou Shu for compatibility analysis. If you get the animal sign wrong, it can be the difference between highly compatible and not compatible at all!

It pays to be sure which calendar system you should use.

You can find out the first day of every year for each of the calendars by using the Ten Thousand Year Calendar reference book or via my on-line Ten Thousand Year Calendar.

Feng Shui Buy House Guide — Click here to Download

Date Selection

Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

The Chinese system of time keeping is based on the Ganzhi system. Ganzhi is the short form for Tian Gan and Di Zhi which means Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

The Chinese Solar or Xia Calendar is based on the earth’s rotation around the sun while the Chinese Lunar Calendar is based on the moon’s rotation around the earth. Many cultures including the Chinese believe that life on earth is influence by the movement of the heavenly bodies that include the sun, moon and planets such as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury etc that ! Keeping track of their movement and their influence on mankind is not an easy task. It requires a good knowledge of astronomy and mathematics!

Many practitioners believe that the Ganzhi system is a model of this astronomical system and its influences. The outstanding feature of this system is it simplicity and that it can be understood and applied by almost anyone.

There are 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches. They have either yin or yang properties as well as elemental property of the Five Elements as shown in the table below.

Stem	Status	Element	Branch	Status	Element
Jia	Yang	Wood	Zi	Yang	Water
Yi	Yin	Wood	Chou	Yin	Earth
Bing	Yang	Fire	Yin	Yang	Wood
Ding	Yin	Fire	Mao	Yin	Wood
Wu	Yang	Earth	Chen	Yang	Earth
Ji	Yin	Earth	Si	Yin	Fire
Geng	Yang	Metal	Wu	Yang	Fire
Xin	Yin	Metal	Wei	Yin	Earth
Ren	Yang	Water	Shen	Yang	Metal
Gui	Yin	Water	You	Yin	Metal
			Xu	Yang	Earth
			Hai	Yin	Water

The stems combine with the branches in a sequence shown below to form a cycle of 60 combinations known as the “60 Jia Zi”.

1 – 10	11 – 20	21 – 30	31 – 40	41 – 50	51 – 60
Jia Zi	Jia Xu	Jia Shen	Jia Wu	Jia Chen	Jia Yin
Yi Chou	Yi Hai	Yi You	Yi Wei	Yi Si	Yi Mao
Bing Yin	Bing Zi	Bing Xu	Bing Shen	Bing Wu	Bing Chen
Ding Mao	Ding Chou	Ding Hai	Ding You	Ding Wei	Ding Si
Wu Chen	Wu Yin	Wu Zi	Wu Xu	Wu Shen	Wu Wu
Ji Si	Ji Mao	Ji Chou	Ji Hai	Ji You	Ji Wei
Geng Wu	Geng Chen	Geng Yin	Geng Zi	Geng Xu	Geng Shen
Xin Wei	Xin Si	Xin Mao	Xin Chou	Xin Hai	Xin You
Ren Shen	Ren Wu	Ren Chen	Ren Yin	Ren Zi	Ren Xu
Gui You	Gui Wei	Gui Si	Gui Mao	Gui Chou	Gui Hai

This 60 Jia Zi is mapped to the year, month and day and repeated infinitely. For example the year 1924, 1984 and 2044 are all Jia Zi Year. The following years of 1925, 1985 and 2045 are all Yi Chou Year which is the next combination in the sequence.

Similarly if this month is Yi Chou, then the next month is Bing Yin which is the next combination in the sequence. The same applies to the day. If today is Jia Zi then tomorrow is Yi Chou. The cycle is repeated every 60 days. And if this bi-hour is Ding You, the next bi-hour is Wu Xu the next combination in the cycle.

This explains why in the Chinese Solar or Xia Calendar every day is represented by four Jia Zi combinations namely the Jia Zi of the year, month, day (and hour if specified).

To find out the Jia Zi combinations of any western day you can use this Ten Thousand Year Calendar.

Let me give an example of how this system is used to find a very inauspicious day called the Year Breaker. The stem branch combination for the year 2006 is Bing Xu. In the system of stems and branches, Xu clash with Chen (not covered here) and hence any Chen day in 2006 is considered inauspicious. This type of inauspicious clash is known as a Year Breaker!

Date Selection

The Chinese Lunar Calendar

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

In addition to the Xia or Chinese Solar Calendar the Chinese have a Chinese Lunar Calendar. It is based on the moon’s rotation around the earth which takes approximately 29.53059days.

The ancient Chinese felt the need to synchronize the Chinese lunar calendar with the Chinese solar calendar. Unfortunately this is not an easy task. Twelve lunar months add up to 354.36708 days and is not equal to one solar year of 365.242199 days!

To solve this problem, the Chinese added an addition month in 7 out of every 19 years. The additional month takes the name of the month before and is known as a leap month. Due to this addition month, the 1st day of the 1st month (also known as Chinese New Year) varies from year to year between the months of January and February. This can be very confusing but it works.

The first lunar month is not called January. Instead it is simply called the 1st Month. The second month is called the 2nd Month and so on until the 12th Month!

Each lunar month can have either 29 or 30 days. When the month has 29 days, it is considered to be small and when it has 30 days it is considered to be big.

Hence a lunar 1st Month that has 30 days is called 1st Month Big while a 6th Month that has 29 days is called 6th Month Small.

The lunar year is name after the 12 Earthly Branches with names like Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao and so on. To make it easy for the general population, they associate an animal with each of the Branch. For example Zi is Rat, Chou is Ox, Yin is Tiger, Mao is rabbit etc. This cycle is repeated every 12 years. For example 1960 is the year of Zi or the Rat and so is 1972, 1984, 1996 and so on.

To find out the Chinese lunar calendar equivalent of any western date you can use this conversion calendar.

Most traditional Chinese festivals such a the Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival, All Souls Day, Mid-Autumn (Moon Cake) festival are based on the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

Date Selection

The Xia Calendar

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

According to the classics, the Xia Emperor Yao instructed the Ho Hsi brothers to revise the calendar in 2405 BC.

This revised calendar is also known the as The Xia (Hsia) calendar. It is quite similar to the western Gregorian calendar as it is also based on the earth’s orbit around the sun. However instead of starting the year on the 1st of January, the Chinese Solar calendar start the year on the 1st day of Spring which falls on or around the 4th Feb. The earth takes 365 and a quarter day to orbit the sun.

Every quarter day makes one extra day and the western Gregorian calendar accounts for this extra day by inserting a day into Feb every 4 years. The Chinese Solar calendar takes account of this extra day by making adjustments to some of the years. This explains why the start of spring wobbles between the 3rd and 5th of February.

In the Xia Calendar, each year is divided into four seasons and 12 months. The naming convention is based on the Earthly Branches. The first month is Yin and this is followed by Mao, Chen and so on. Each month is further divided into two sub-months, the first known as Knot and the second half as Qi. This is illustrated in the table below.

Xia Calendar
Month	Branch	Knot & Qi	Western Dates
1	Yin	Start of Spring	February 4th/5th
		Rain Water	February 19th/20th
2	Mao	Insects Awaken	March 6th/7th
		Spring Equinox	March 21st/22nd
3	Chen	Clear Brightness	April 5th/6th
		Grain Rice	April 20th/21th
4	Si	Start of Summer	May 6th/7th
		Small Harvest	May 21st/22nd
5	Wu	Seed Planting	Jun 6th/7th
		Summer Solstice	Jun 21st/22nd
6	Wei	Slight Heat	July 7th/8th
		Great Heat	July 23rd/24th
7	Shen	Start of Autumn	August 8th/9th
		Hidden Heat	August 24th/25th
8	Xu	White Dew	September 8th/9th
		Autumn Equinox	September 23rd/24th
9	Hai	Cold Dew	October 8th/9th
		Frost Descends	October 23rd/24th
10	Ji	Start of Winter	November 7th/8th
		Slight Snow	November 22nd/23rd
11	Chou	Great Snow	December 7th/8th
		Winter Solstice	December 22nd/23rd
12	Girl	Slight Cold	January 6th/7th
		Great Cold	January 21st/22nd

You may notice that the names of the Joint and Qi have an agricultural undertone. This is due to the fact the calendar was devised to regulate agriculture and it is also known as the Farmer’s Calendar.

You can use the on-line Ten Thousand Year Calendar to find the solar equivalent date for any western Gregorian day.

Feng Shui

Three Killings or San Sha

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

he Three Killings consists of the triple combo of Year ‘Sha’, Robbery ‘Sha’and Disaster ‘Sha’. The Year ‘Sha’ energy creates obstacles and set backs, the Robbery ‘Sha’ with money loss and the Disaster ‘Sha’ with accidents and calamities. The energies of Three Killings (San Sha) are directional and they afflict from the four cardinals of north, south, east and west depending on the year (more specifically the earthly branch of the year).

Each year, one cardinal direction of your house (or office) will fall under the influence of Three Killings. The span of influence of Three Killings is quite wide. For example when it comes from the north, it affects not just the north sector but also part of the neighbouring sectors of north west and north east. Mathematically it affects a sector span of 75 degrees.

If the area afflicted by Three Killings is a frequently used space such a bedroom or the main door, then you should reduce the effect of Three Killings by placing an appropriate cure in the area.

Let’s assume that your bedroom is in the north sector of the house. Let’s also assume that the Three Killing energies come from the north in that particular year. If you have space in the north outside your bedroom you can place some plants (or plant a tree) to negate the Three Killings.

Inside the room, you should place a small plant in the north sector of your bedroom. I know a lot has practitioners warn against having a plant in the room but this is an exception and a small indoor plant will not create any problem. The plant should be strengthen with a little water (still water like a glass) and metal e.g. six ancient Chinese coins.

From a Feng Shui perspective, you should not do any major renovation in the area affected by Three Killings as activating the area afflicted by Three Killings can activate the inauspicious effects of Three Killings to the detriment of the occupants of the household.

There is one exception. It is believe that activating a sector afflicted by Three Killings on some special days can actually bring the opposite effect i.e. smooth going and money luck. These are called ‘good san sha’ and are highly auspicious days during the periods when ‘san sha’ is weakest.

How do we know where is ‘san sha’ for a particular year?

Here is how. There are twelve earthly branches. Three branches form a combo, for example ‘Yin-Wu-Xu’, ‘Hai-Mao-Wei’, ‘Shen-Zi-Chen’ and ‘Si-You-Chou’. The branch in the middle of each combo namely ‘Wu’, ‘Mao’, ‘Zi’ and ‘You’ can be considered to be the leader of each combo.

Let’s take the example of 2007 which is ‘Ding Hai’ Year. ‘Hai’ is part of the ‘Hai-Mao-Wei’ combo with ‘Mao’ as the leader. Directly opposite ‘Mao’ is ‘You’ which is located in the west. Hence the Three Killings is located in the west in 2007.

Let’s take another example of 2008 which is ‘Wu Zi’ Year. ‘Zi’ is part of the ‘Shen-Zi-Chen’ combo and happens to the leader. Direction opposite ‘Zi’ is ‘Wu’ which is south. This is why Three Killings or ‘San Sha’ is in the south in 2008.

Date Selection

Personal Clash Day

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

The process of date selection starts with eliminating inauspicious dates.

Two of the most inauspicious dates are the year breaker and month breaker. The year breaker is the day where the earthly branch of the day clashes with the earthly branch of the year. The month breaker on the other hand is the day where the earthly branch of the day clashes with the earthly branch of the month.

As a rule the year and month breaker are not used but in exceptional circumstances certain year and month breakers are allowed.

In addition to the year and month breaker, the personal clash day is considered to be a highly inauspicious day and is not used. So what is a personal clash day? It is the day that clashes with the earthly branch of the year of your birth.

In the Chinese calendar system, our year of birth is denoted by a set of heavenly stems and branch. To find out the stem and branch combination of your year of birth, you can simply refer to the Ten Thousand Year Calendar.

Let’s illustrate this win an example. Let’s suppose that you are born on the 1st June 1957. Using the tool above we find out that the stem branch combination is Ding You.

The earthly branch is ‘You’. In the clash and combination of the branches, ‘You’ clash with ‘Mao’. Therefore a ‘Mao’ day is a personal clash day for anyone born in the year of ‘You’. It should not be used for any significant activity such as renovation or moving.

How do you know if a day is a ‘Mao’ day? Again you can use the Ten Thousand Year Calendar. You do not have 10,000 years of data but the 100 or so years given are more than sufficient. Most Chinese calendars also show the stem branch combination. Nowadays it is possible to purchase a diary in English showing the stem and branch of the day (and year and month).

You can even do it with Microsoft Outlook. Click Tools menu followed by Options. Select Calendar Options under the Preference Tab. Enable Alternate Calendar under the Advanced Option and select Chinese Simplified or Traditional and Zodiac. That is it! Other versions of Outlook may have a slightly different setting sequence so you may need to figure it out yourself.

So far so good but there is still a problem. The stem and branch is shown in Chinese character. If you find a way to display the Hanyu Pinyin equivalent, please let me know. Meanwhile you can learn how to recognize and write the characters of each of the 22 characters of the stems and branches here.

What if you need to find a date for moving for a family of three? For example father is born on a ‘You’ year, mother is a ‘Shen’ year and son in a ‘Hai’ year. If possible you should eliminate all clash days which includes ‘Mao’ (clash with ‘You’), ‘Yin’ (clash with ‘Shen’ and ‘Si’ days (clash with ‘Hai’).

However if it is not possible, then you should at least eliminate the personal clash day of the head of the household. It used to the husband or father by default but these days it is advisable to ask. It could be the wife or mother!

Date Selection

What is a Day Breaker?

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

The Day Breaker is the most inauspicious time period of the day. As a rule, we avoid carrying out any auspicious activities such as engagement, marriage, opening business, signing agreement, house warming etc during this time period.

There is a reason why I use the term time period instead of hour. Unlike a Western hour which is made up of 60 minutes, a Chinese hour is 120 minutes long. For example the “Zi” or Rat time is from 11 PM to 1 AM. The “Chou” or Ox time is from 1 AM to 3 AM and so on. Please read my article titled, “Chinese Hours” for more on the subject.

So how do you figure out the Day Breaker for each day?

The answer lies with the Earthly Branch of the day. In Chinese time keeping, every day is represented by a Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch combination. The usual way to find out this combination is be referencing the Ten Thousand Year Calendar. This reference book used to be available in Chinese only but is now available in English.

A faster way is to use my on-line Chinese Calendar Converter. Select the Gregorian date, hit the submit button and the tool will provide you with the equivalent Chinese Lunar and Solar day as well as some other information. Look for the Chinese Solar day on the third line. It should read X Y day. X is the Heavenly Stem of the day while Y is the Earthly Branch of the day. Take note of Y. It should be one of the 12 Earthly Branches namely Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu or Hai. There is a correlation between the Earthly Branches and Chinese animal signs. For example Zi is Rat while Chou is Ox etc. Please refer to the table for the rest. So if the Branch of the day is Zi, that day is also known as a Rat day.

Earthly Branch Corresponding Animal Sign

Earthly Branch	Corresponding Animal Sign
Zi	Rat
Chou	Ox
Yin	Tiger
Mao	Rabbit
Chen	Dragon
Si	Snake
Wu	Horse
Wei	Goat
Shen	Monkey
You	Rooster
Xu	Dog
Hai	Pig

There is a clash relationship between the animal signs. For example Rat clash with Horse and vice versa. Please refer to the table below for the rest of the clash relationship.

Rat	Horse
Ox	Goat
Tiger	Monkey
Rabbit	Rooster
Dragon	Dog
Snake	Pig

Now let’s go back to Day Breaker. Every Chinese Hour (Two Western hour equivalent) is represented by an Earthly Branch or Animal sign. For example the hours between 11 PM and 1 AM is known as the Zi or Rat time, the hours between 1 AM and 3 AM id Chou or Ox time and so on.

Earthly Branch Animal Sign Hours

Earthly Branch	Animal Sign	Hours
Zi	Rat	11 pm to 1 am
Chou	Ox	1 am to 3 am
Yin	Tiger	3 am to 5 am
Mao	Rabbit	5 am to 7 am
Chen	Dragon	7 am to 9 am
Si	Snake	9 am to 11 am
Wu	Horse	11 am to 1 pm
Wei	Goat	1 pm to 3 pm
Shen	Monkey	3 pm to 5 pm
You	Rooster	5 pm to 7 pm
Xu	Dog	7 pm to 9 pm
Hai	Pig	9 pm to 11 pm

The Day breaker is the Chinese Hour or time period that clash with the Earthly Branch of the day. For example if the Branch of the day is Chou or Ox, then the Day Breaker of the day is the Wei or Goat hour (between 1 PM and 3 PM).

I will elaborate on this using a couple of real life examples.

Let’s take the 11 Nov 2011. Using the Ten Thousand Year calendar reference or my on-line tool, you find out that it is a Wu (or Horse) day. The Horse clashes with the Rat. Therefore the Day Breaker hour is Rat or Zi (from 11 PM to 1 AM).

Let’s take the 12 Dec 2011. Using the Ten Thousand Year calendar reference or my on-line tool, you find out that it is a Wei (or Goat) day. The Goat clashes with the Ox. Therefore the Day Breaker hour is Ox or Chou (from 1 AM to 3 AM).

That is a Day Breaker for you.

Date Selection

Month and Year Breaker Days

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

In Chinese date selection techniques there are two type of bad days that are considered to be very inauspicious. There are the Year Breaker and the Month Breaker.

In the Chinese solar or Xia calendar every year, month, day and time is represented by a Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch combinations. There are altogether 60 combinations and are often called the 60 Jia Zi.

For example the year 2006 is represented by Bing Xu or more commonly referred to as the Fire Dog. Why Fire and why Dog? The stem Bing is fire while Xu is commonly equated with the Dog. That is why!

The first solar month is always Yin. This followed in the second month by Mao, the third month by Chen and so on until Chou in the 12th month.

Finally every day is represented by a stem branch combination or 60 Jia Zi. For example the 4 Jun 06 is Jia Zi. The next day is Yi Chou followed by Bing Yin and so on. The cycle is repeated every 60 days.

Year and Month Breaker

So what is a Year Breaker and why is it a bad day?

It is the days when the branch of the year clashes with the branch of the day.

The solar year 2006 stretches between 4th Feb 06 and 3rd Feb 07. It is represented by ‘Bing Xu’ and is commonly called the Dog year. In the combinations and clashes of the earthly branches, ‘Xu’ clash with ‘Chen’ (or dragon). Therefore any ‘Chen’ days in Solar year 2006 is a Year Breaker day and is considered a bad or inauspicious day.

For example, the 8th Feb represented by ‘Wu Chen’ is a Year Breaker day.

Then what is a Month Breaker day.

It is the days when the branch of the month clashes with the branch of the day.

The first month of any solar year is Yin. In the combination and clashes of the earthly branches, Yin clash with Shen. Therefore any ‘Shen’ day in the first solar month is a Month Breaker day.

For example, the 12th of Feb which is Ren Shen is a Month Breaker day and is considered a bad or inauspicious day.

Are there more bad days or inauspicious dates? You bet there is. But that will be covered at another time or in another venue!

In the meantime, if you want to know the stem branch combinations of any western date you can do so by using my on-line Chinese calendar converter.

Others

The Spring Ox and Cowherd of the Chinese Almanac – 2

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

What about the Cowherd? (Also known as the Spring God).

The Cowherd can appear as a child, a young or an old man. In the years of the Rat, Pig, Horse and Rooster he is shown as a child. In the years of the Ox, Dragon, Goat and Dog as a young man and in the years of the Tiger, Snake, Monkey and Pig as an old man.

The colours of the Cowherd’s costume and belt depend on the Earthy Branch of the first day of Li Chun (Start of Spring). On a Rat or Pig day (Zi or Hai) it is a yellow costume with a green belt On an Ox, Dragon, Goat or Dog day (Chou, Chen, Wei and Xu) it is a green costume with a white belt. On a Tiger or Rabbit day (Yin or Mao) it is a white costume with red belt and on a Snake or Horse day (Si or Wu) it is a black costume with a yellow belt. Finally on a Monkey or Rooster day (Shen and You) it is a red costume with a black belt.

The position of the Cowherd’s bun on his head denotes the Na Yin element of the first day of Li Cun. On a metal day they are in front of the ears. On a wood day, they are behind the ears. On a water day, the left bun is in front while the right bun is behind the ears. On a fire day, the right bun is in front of the ear while the left bun is behind. Finally on an earth day, both the buns are on top.

The Na Yin element of the first day of Li Cun determines how the Cowherd wears his shoes, leggings or pants. On a metal day he wears the pants and shoes with the left legging dangling from the waist. On a wood day he wears the pants and shoes with the right legging dangling from the waist. On a water day he wears them all and on a fire day he wears none of them. Finally on an earth day, he wears only pants without shoes or leggings.

The material of the branch that he uses as a ward depends on the Earthly Branch of the first day of Li Cun. It is hemp on a Rat, Rabbit, Horse or Rooster day, silk on an Ox, Dragon, Goat or Dog day and linen on a Tiger, Snake, Monkey or Pig day.

This gets a little complicated. Due to the complicity of the Chinese Solar and Lunar calendar, Li Cun or the Start of Spring can come before or after the Chinese New Year or first day of the Chinese Lunar Calendar for a particular year.

If Li Chu is less than five days ahead or behind Chinese New Year date, the Cowherd stands side by side with the Spring Ox. It Li Cun is more than five days ahead or behind Chinese New Year date, the Cowherd stands in front or behind the Spring Ox respectively.

Finally the Cowherd stands on the right of the Spring Ox in a Yin year and on the left in a Yang year.

With the above information, you can draw your own Spring Ox and Cowherd drawing for any year. Anyone game to try?

Others

The Spring Ox and Cowherd of the Chinese Almanac – 1

February 9, 2014 Henry Leave a comment

On the first and last page of a traditional Chinese Almanac you will find an illustration of an ox and cowherd. If you look at them carefully you will find subtle differences between the illustrations. What do the illustrations mean? Does it convey some information?

The illustration is normally called the Spring Ox drawing and it provides overall climatic information in a pictorial manner. The illustration on the front page shows climatic information for the current year while the one on the back page is for following year.

The Spring Ox was originally a clay figure for ceremonial purposes. In the old days, royal officials would whip the Ox on the first day of spring (Li Cun) to signify the start of a new solar year.

There are rules governing the relative dimensions of the Spring Ox and the Cowherd. The height of the Ox is four units of length to represent the four seasons. The length of the Ox is eight units of length to represent the eight seasonal nodes while the tail is 1.2 units of length to represent the twelve months of a year.

The length of the branch that the Cowherd uses as a wand is 2.4 units of length to represent the 24 knots and qi of a year. Finally, the height of the Cowherd is 3.65 units of length to represent the 365 days of a year.

For the Spring Ox diagram to convey weather information effectively it should be in colour. Nowadays as society become less dependent on the illustration, it is shown in black and white on most almanacs.

What kind of information does it convey?

The colour of the head of the Ox tells the element of the Heavenly Stem of year. In a Wood year (Jia or Yi), the color of the Ox’s head is green. In a Fire year (Bing or Ding) it is Red while in an Earth Year (Wu or Ji) it is Yellow. During a metal year (Geng or Xin) it is white while in a Water year (Ren or Gui) it is black.

The colour of the body of the Ox tells the element of the Earthly Branch of the year. In the Wood years of the Tiger or Rabbit (Yin or Mao) it is green while in the Fire years of the Snake or Horse (Si or Wu) it is Red. In the Metal Years of the Monkey and Rooster (Shen or You) it is white while in the Water Years of the Pig and Rat (Hai or Zi) it is black. Finally in the Earth years of the Dragon or Goat or Dog or Ox it is yellow.

The colour of the Ox’s stomach denotes the The Na Yin (received notes or hidden) element of the year. It is green for wood, red for fire, yellow for earth, white for metal and black water.

The colour of the Ox’s horns, ears and tail denotes on the element of the Heavenly Stem of the first day of Li Cun (Start of Spring – usually on or around 4th Feb). The colour of the Ox’s knees denotes the element of the Earthly Branch of the first day of Li Cun. Again it is green for wood, red for fire, yellow for earth, white for metal and black for water.

The Na Yin element of the first day of Li Cun is denoted by the colour of the hooves of the Ox.

The Yin or Yang of the year is denoted by the side to which the Ox’s tails bend. It bends to the right in a Yin year and to the left in a Yang year. In addition, the Ox’s mouth is shut in a Yin year and opened in a Yang year.

Even the texture and colour of the rein tells denotes something about the Stem and Branch (or animal sign) of Li Cun (first day of spring). If the first day of spring is a Rat, Rabbit, Horse of Rooster day, the rein is made from hemp. For an Ox, Dragon, Goat or Dog day it is made of silk. Finally for a Tiger, Snake, monkey or Pig day it is made of linen.

The colour of the rein is determined by the element of the day. As usual it is green for wood, red for fire, yellow for earth, white for metal and black for water.

Absolutely Feng Shui

Animal Sign: Are you a Horse or Goat?

Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches

The Chinese Lunar Calendar

The Xia Calendar

Three Killings or San Sha

Personal Clash Day

What is a Day Breaker?

Month and Year Breaker Days

The Spring Ox and Cowherd of the Chinese Almanac – 2

The Spring Ox and Cowherd of the Chinese Almanac – 1

Feng Shui and More