Day officer
Jiàn
Establish
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
建者一月之主
Establish is the master of the month.
協紀辨方書 卷四
About this entry
建 opens the series of twelve officers, day names that repeat in a fixed order. 協紀辨方書 of 1741, quoting an older calendar manual in 卷四, starts the count on the branch of the month, so in the 寅 month a 寅 day is 建 and the other eleven follow. The editors treat it as the chief of the month's spirits, and they record a popular name for it, the Son of Heaven within the month.
卷十 lists appointments and postings as suited to this day, along with military matters under its other name 兵福, and the editors say they widened an older, shorter list. Its avoid list runs long, from prayers through building to burial, then shrinks to construction, earthworks and felling when certain virtue spirits share the day. The editors add that a 月建 day is in itself no bad day. They compare the caution to the respect owed the ruling spirit of a year.
The books give it no single verdict. 星厯考原 of 1713 files 建 with the six unfavorable officers, and a rhyme it quotes marks it black, a use of that color unrelated to the twelve spirits on this site. 選擇宗鏡, quoted in 協紀, says 建 turns very good when good stars stack on it and bad when bad stars do. The calculator reports the position only: it counts from the month branch to the day branch, and when a 節 solar term opens a new month the previous officer repeats for one day. Where this list names illness, money or contracts, it reports the 1741 book and is no guidance; ask a doctor or another qualified person about real decisions.
What 協紀辨方書 says of a 建 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
- 施恩封拜Granting favors and conferring titles
- 詔命公卿Appointing high ministers by decree
- 招賢Recruiting able men
- 舉正直Promoting the upright
- 行幸Imperial tours
- 遣使Sending envoys
- 上官赴任Taking up an official post
- 臨政親民Governing and attending to the people
- 頒詔Proclaiming edicts (when joined with 天恩)
- 宣政事Announcing matters of government (when joined with 天恩)
- 安撫邊境Pacifying the borders (as 兵福)
- 選將訓兵Selecting generals and training troops (as 兵福)
- 出師Sending out an army (as 兵福)
The book says to avoid
- 祈福Praying for blessings
- 求嗣Praying for children
- 上册進表章Presenting investiture documents and memorials to the throne
- 結婚姻Arranging a marriage
- 納采問名Betrothal gifts and exchanging names
- 解除Rites of clearing and removal
- 整容剃頭Grooming and shaving the head
- 整手足甲Trimming fingernails and toenails
- 求醫療病Seeking a physician and treating illness
- 營建宮室Constructing palaces and halls
- 修宫室Repairing palaces and halls
- 繕城郭Repairing city walls
- 興造動土Building work and moving earth
- 豎柱上梁Raising pillars and setting roof beams
- 修倉庫Repairing storehouses
- 開倉庫出貨財Opening storehouses and paying out goods
- 修置產室Preparing a birthing room
- 破屋壞垣Pulling down houses and walls
- 伐木Felling trees
- 栽種Planting
- 破土Breaking ground for a grave
- 安葬Burial
- 啟攢Opening a temporary grave for reburial
- 出師Sending out an army (on 建 days of the first month)
- 築隄防Building dikes (as 土府)
- 開渠穿井Digging channels and wells (as 土府)
- 安碓磑Setting up pestles and millstones (as 土府)
- 補垣Patching walls (as 土府)
- 修飾垣墻Repairing and finishing walls (as 土府)
- 平治道塗Leveling and mending roads (as 土府)
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.