Day officer
Zhí
Hold
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
執者守其成也
To hold is to guard what has been completed.
協紀辨方書 卷四
About this entry
Grasp or hold is the plain sense of 執, sixth in the series and on the 未 day of the 寅 month. 協紀辨方書 卷四 links it to the step before, since what has settled can be held and held things are kept. 淮南子, quoted in the same place, says it governs 陷, a word for sinking or being caught, and leaves the matter there. Its two alternate names are 枝徳 and 小耗.
The 卷十 entry is brief and concrete: catching and trapping, hunting between 霜降 and 立春, and fishing between 雨水 and 立夏. A short note says the sense comes from the word and that the seasonal limits follow the time of year. The 執日 heading has no avoid list. A separate entry for 小耗 names storehouse repairs, markets, contracts, trading and paying out goods, and it lapses when virtue spirits join.
Here two sources reach opposite results. 選擇宗鏡 pairs 執 with 死符 and 小耗 and calls it bad, whereas 星厯考原 lists it as favorable and its rhyme marks it yellow. 考原 adds that the pairing with 死符 does not hold up. The calculator leaves that argument alone.
What 協紀辨方書 says of a 執 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
- 捕捉Catching and trapping
- 畋獵Hunting (after 霜降, before 立春)
- 取魚Fishing (after 雨水, before 立夏)
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.