Auspicious Dates Guide — Chinese Almanac (Tung Shing)
Every major life event — weddings, moving house, grand openings, signing contracts — has its own set of favorable days in the Chinese almanac. Our engine computes them from JPL ephemeris data and the 1739 imperial Qianlong Xie Ji Bian Fang Shu, then removes every Tier-1 taboo day before a date can make the list.
How auspicious dates are chosen
Daily lists on this site are produced by a four-layer engine, not copied from a printed calendar. Layer 1 fixes the lunar month and day pillar from minute-precision solar terms (JPL DE440s, 1900–2100). Layer 2 reads the 12 Day Officers (建除十二神) and the Yellow/Black Belt deities (黃道/黑道). Layer 3 adds auspicious spirits — Heavenly Virtue (天德), Monthly Virtue (月德), and others — plus hard vetoes: Year Breaker (岁破), Month Breaker (月破), the Four Departures and Four Absolute days (四离四绝), San Niang days for weddings, and Yang Gong taboos. Layer 4 scores what survives and ranks the golden dates you see on every activity page.
Each activity favors different Day Officers: weddings prefer Complete (成) and Open (开) days, groundbreaking prefers Establish (建) and Stable (定) days, contracts favor Full (满) days. The same calendar day can be excellent for one event and mediocre for another — that is exactly why each activity has its own list.
Read the full methodology → · Today's almanac → · This month's calendar →
Common questions
What are auspicious dates in the Chinese calendar?
Auspicious dates (吉日) are days the Chinese almanac, or Tung Shing (通勝), marks as favorable for a specific activity. Favorability comes from the interaction of that day's Day Officer (建除十二神), its Yellow or Black Belt deity, and the auspicious or inauspicious spirits attached to it — the same day can be strong for a wedding but weak for groundbreaking, which is why each activity has its own list.
How do I pick an auspicious date for my event?
Start from the activity page that matches your event, shortlist the golden dates, then filter out any day that clashes with your Chinese zodiac animal (shown on every date card). If two or three candidates remain, prefer the one whose lucky hours fit your schedule, and keep a backup date in case of practical conflicts.
Are these auspicious dates the same as those in a printed Tung Shing?
The rules are the same classical system, but the computation is not copied from any printed edition. Dates here are computed from JPL DE440s ephemeris data with minute-level solar terms, arbitrated by the four-tier rules of the 1739 imperial Qianlong Xie Ji Bian Fang Shu — which means day pillars and Yellow Belt deities stay correct even across year boundaries, and every taboo day is removed before a date is listed.
Do auspicious dates differ by year?
Yes. Each year's branch interacts differently with the calendar — 2026 is a Fire Horse (丙午) year, so days clashing the Horse branch are excluded throughout. Use the year-specific pages (2026 / 2027) when your event is more than 90 days away, since the rolling 90-day lists always start from today.