Lunar mansion
Zī
Beak
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
觜近中宫故為猴之本象
觜 being near the center, the monkey is its original image.
協紀辨方書 卷一
About this entry
觜 sits nearer the center of the 申 palace and so receives the monkey, the branch animal of 申, in 協紀辨方書 卷一. The memorials at the front of 協紀 discuss its order: old star lists put 觜 before 參, and a later astronomy work, taking a different measuring star, puts 參 first. The editors proposed restoring the old order because the choice of measuring star does not affect computation, but the officials who reviewed the memorial declined to change an order fixed in the Kangxi years. This site places 觜 first.
Order matters here since fire and water would swap, and 星厯考原 卷五 places 觜 in the fire group with 室, 翼 and 尾. Tuesday is its modern weekday. It lies between 畢 and 參.
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.