Yi and Ji: what the almanac recommends and avoids
An activity-specific judgement
Yi (宜), suitable activities, and Ji (忌), activities to avoid, are the two headings under which an almanac classifies undertakings. Their meaning depends on the activity named beneath them. A recommendation about opening a business does not automatically cover signing a contract, arranging a bed or holding a marriage ceremony.
The number of entries does not measure a day’s fortune. A long Yi list may say nothing about the event being planned, while a short list may name it explicitly. The relevant information is the activity itself, the heading under which it appears and any qualification attached to it.
Traditional activity lists cover household tasks, ritual occasions, work and public affairs. Their vocabulary can be much more specific than the broad labels used in everyday English. Understanding those distinctions is the first step in reading a recommendation.
Activity names and broad closing expressions
Activity vocabulary
The distinctions below are useful when comparing an English entry with its Chinese wording. They describe the activity labels, not whether an activity is suitable on a particular date.
| Label | Pinyin | Meaning in this context | Distinction to preserve |
|---|---|---|---|
| 嫁娶 | Jiaqu | Marriage | Distinct from preliminary wedding rites |
| 纳采 | Nacai | Formal proposal gifts | The first of the traditional six marriage rites |
| 安床 | Anchuang | Installing or arranging a bed | May have its own date within wedding preparations |
| 修造动土 | Xiuzao dongtu | Building or repair involving the commencement of earthwork | Distinct from raising the frame or placing the main beam |
| 竖柱上梁 | Shuzhu shangliang | Raising pillars and placing the main beam | A particular construction stage |
| 开市 | Kaishi | Opening a market or business | Distinct from an individual transaction |
| 立券交易 | Liquan jiaoyi | Executing an agreement and conducting a transaction | Some editions combine the terms; others list them separately |
| 安葬 | Anzang | Burial | One undertaking within the wider sequence of funerary rites |
Nacai involves a formal marriage proposal accompanied by gifts. Translating it and jiaqu simply as “wedding” would remove a distinction preserved in the activity list. The same applies to anchuang: in some wedding traditions, arranging the bridal bed is a separately timed preparation, rather than something covered automatically by the marriage date.
Combined headings also need care. “Raising pillars and placing the main beam” names construction stages that can occur after work has already begun. An entry for beginning earthwork does not necessarily apply to every later stage of a building project.
None listed and restrictive phrases
A sparse field can have several meanings. None listed means that the list contains no named activities. Under Yi, it does not recommend every activity. Under Ji, it does not provide an activity-by-activity endorsement of the day.
Two broad closing expressions carry a different meaning. Their negative wording remains important even when they appear under the Yi heading.
| Wording | Pinyin | English wording | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 无 | Wu | None listed | No named activities are supplied in this field |
| 诸事不宜 | Zhushi buyi | No activities recommended | A general restrictive statement, rather than an empty list |
| 余事勿取 | Yushi wuqu | Undertake nothing else | Advises against undertakings beyond those named |
“Undertake nothing else” limits the scope of the activities listed with it. Its position beneath Suitable activities does not turn it into an invitation to add more undertakings. By contrast, an activity’s simple absence from a short list may reflect the edition’s selection of material. Absence and an explicit Ji entry are different readings.
How daily lists are selected
On the Atlas, daily Yi and Ji are obtained from an activity table using the month Ganzhi and day Ganzhi, their stem-and-branch names. The month follows the solar-term-date convention: it changes at the start of the civil date containing a jie term. The ordinary civil-day Ganzhi supplies the day input.
This seasonal month is separate from the numbered lunar month. A new lunar month does not by itself reset the daily activity rules. Conversely, the relevant Ganzhi month can change at a solar term while the lunar month continues.
Hourly recommendations have their own entries. A suitable activity listed for a double hour applies to that time interval and should be kept separate from the daily list. Daily and hourly recommendations need not be identical.
Activities and other day labels
Names elsewhere on the page do not supply a complete Yi or Ji list. A day officer called Danger, for example, is not a ban on every activity. In the Qing Xieji Bianfang Shu, Danger appears among the suitable day-officer conditions for installing a bed. That entry also has exclusions, so the officer alone does not settle the choice.
The same distinction applies to Yellow path and Black path. Those labels classify the presiding deity. Pengzu taboos select two sayings from the day’s stem and branch. Neither field is a shortened version of the activity table.
Yi and Ji express traditional date-selection judgements. They do not establish that a date causes an undertaking to succeed or fail. Their useful detail lies in the named activity and the conditions attached to it, rather than a single verdict covering the whole day.