Cast & Chart

Lunar mansion

Lóu

Bond

An almanac describes traditional day-types. It cannot decide health, money, law, marriage or children. Burial, marriage and medical items on these pages are what a book states, never advice.

In the classical sources

婁近中宫故為狗之本象

With 婁 near the middle of the palace, the dog is its proper figure.

協紀辨方書 卷一

About this entry

The dog is the animal of 婁 because it lies nearer the center of the 戌 palace, whose branch animal is the dog, while 奎 takes the wolf. That reasoning comes from 協紀辨方書 卷一. 卷三十六 counts it among the four 暗金 metal mansions, a set of hours the editors no longer use.

Its group in 星厯考原 卷五 is metal, beside 鬼, 亢 and 牛, and the modern calendar link is Friday. After 奎 and before 胃 is its place. There is no per-mansion table of good and bad in 協紀 to consult, apart from the cutting-clothes list of 卷三十六, which the editors dismiss as foreign custom.

Where this text comes from

The Chinese follows the Wikisource typed text of the Siku copy, under its CC BY-SA terms. Statements about the calculator describe its own rules, and modern practice is labeled as modern.

The English here is our own plain wording. Lists keep the items of the source.