Day officer
Dìng
Settle
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
平則定建前四位則三合合亦定也
Level, then settled. Four places on from Establish is the triple harmony, and harmony too is settling.
協紀辨方書 卷四
About this entry
定 means settled and takes the fifth place, on the 午 day of the 寅 month. 協紀辨方書 卷四 reasons that level ground can settle, and that the fourth step on from the month's branch forms the three-branch group called 三合. The editors of 卷十 compare it to the sun at the middle of the sky, not yet declining. 卷四 also records an early use: the history of 王莽 says he put on the crown on a 戊辰 day that was 定.
Its 1741 entry holds one plain item, the capping rite for coming of age, and adds planning and strategy under the name 時隂. An older note that 時隂 suited gatherings of relatives was cut because the editors found no fit. No avoid list stands under the 定日 heading. A separate entry in 卷十 for 死氣, another name 卷四 gives this day, does carry one, and the editors shorten it when virtue spirits coincide.
選擇宗鏡 divides the day between 三合, rated good, and 官符, rated bad at the second grade, then places 定 in its second tier beside 除. 星厯考原 calls 定 favorable, and the rhyme it quotes colors the officer yellow, which is no statement about the twelve spirits shown here. The calculator gives the name and its place in the count. Modern printed almanacs add day notes of their own, and those notes are outside this site.
What 協紀辨方書 says of a 定 day
These are the statements of the 1741 imperial almanac book, volume 10. They are the book's words about choosing days, not advice from this site.
The book says the day suits
- 冠帶The capping rite
- 運謀算畫計策Planning and devising strategies (as 時隂)
The book says to avoid
The book states nothing to avoid on this day type.
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.