In this post I shall translate a short Chinese electional astrology text on the "Lunar mansions" or Xiu. It comes from the 2018 edn of the 集福堂 “Hall of collected fortune" almanac of China. This post was based on a twitter thread I published in 2021 https://x.com/edwardW2/status/1435541551598342146/


There are many such texts that are currently circulating in Chinese almanacs. They vary in form and content; some are 4 lines of 7-character verse; others have 8 lines of verse. per lunar mansion This particular poem. however is particularly concise- each judgment merely 12 characters long. Hence it is a ripe candidate for translation.
As some of my readers are no doubt aware, these Xiu 宿 are Chinese constellations. However, we are not concerned with these constellations today, but rather with their current use: as a cycle of 28 days that has no relation to the moon's position in the sky whatsoever. (Think of it as a 28-day week) Chinese almanacs tabulate what is the Xiu or lunar mansion assigned to a particular day. For example, the day I type this (10 Feb 2025) is assigned to the Xiu 心- heart, the 5th lunar mansion. Reading the relevant poem, we find it is an inauspicious day to marry or build. Tomorrow, by contrast will be assigned the 6th lunar mansion, Wei the tail. This is a propitious day to build or bury, as it brings officials.
Each Xiu is associated with an animal. I have taken the translations of the animal names from Thomas Thomas F. Aylward's _The Imperial Guide to Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology (his translation of 協記[辦方書)
which is one of the very few good books on Chinese astrology in English. Each entry of this text is headed with a small drawing of the relevant animal, which adds much to its charm.
Again, you might notice that each of the names of the xiu are associated with a planet/ one of the 5 phases. When the xiu are used in practise, each xiu lines up one of the seven days of the week; so, all the xiu assigned to the "sun"in them fall on Sundays; all the xiu with the word "Fire" on them fall on Tuesdays (as Tuesday- Mars day (martidi) - 火曜日)
As regards the categories of elections, the categories that are mentioned almost invariably in each entry are burial, marriage and construction- things which are in generally the preoccupation of Chinese electional astrology.
Some entries need a bit more explaining, such as mentions of “Doors” and “Water”. Doors, refers to auspicious days to fix/repair doors. “Releasing Water” I gather, surrounds opening irrigation ditches and suchlike works.Finally, as regards to the caveat attached at the end of the whole text, what the book is referring to is a rather complex form of divination called the "Evolving beasts" 演禽術, which somewhat resembles Greater Six Ren 大六壬 divination
Some other almanacs, like the Hong Kong 廣經堂 - Hall of Broad Classics almanac express an even more extreme skepticism about the lunar mansions:
值於舊曆書內所載之二十八宿,原為西城人士紀曆之用,本無吉凶之分,玉匣記附以吉凶詩斷,協記己闢非,今仍註於六甲子日之下者,實為保留紀曆作用,對星宿吉凶論斷,實毋需重視也。
"in the old calendars, were recorded the 28 mansions . These were originally used by the people of the Western Lands to record time, and originally were not divided into auspicious or inauspicious [xiu]. The Jade Box Record 玉匣記, has an appendix which contain poems judging the auspiciousness of each of the xiu; however The Imperial Guide to Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology has shown why [these poems] are baseless 闢非. These lunar mansions are placed beneath the 60 Stems and branches (in this almanac), for the sake of preserving their calendarical use. As for their [in]auspiciousness, in truth, one should put much stock by them.