EXTRAIT

Selection of Fortunate Days

Selection of fortunate or lucky days for the transaction of important business is done by fortune-tellers. It relates particularly and exclusively to the precise time of doing something for the benefit of the applicant. Those who select lucky days for others open shops, where they can be consulted by the people ; and generally the men who do this work are able to tell fortunes by the use of the ‘eight characters’ and the ‘five elements’. They will tell fortunes, or they will select propitious days and hours, according as their employers desire.

The selector of lucky days must know at least the year when, or the animal under which the applicant was born. He should also be informed in regard to the proximate time when the applicant desires to transact the work or business about which he consults him. It then becomes the duty of the lat­ter to ascertain whether the day specified will be fortunate, and if fortunate, what particular hour of it should be devoted to the performance of it ; if unfortunate, to find out a day as near as possible to the desired day which will be fortunate.

The time selected always falls on one of the days which in the Imperial Calendar is marked as lucky. Important business is never commenced on those days which the calendar marks as unlucky or unpropitious. If the question should be raised, Why consult the selector of days at all in regard to a fortunate time for the transaction of business, when the Imperial Calendar has already plainly intimated what are fortunate and what are unfortunate days ? the answer is, While certain days are generally fortunate, they are not, of course, fortunate to all persons alike. These days will prove unlucky days to those who are born during certain years, and this must be ascertained by application to those who are acquainted with the rules relating to the subject. Hence the necessity of places where a bona fide lucky day may be determined upon, and hence the universal application of men upon the eve of entering upon important affairs to those who are able and willing to help them in their necessity.

There are several subjects in regard to which custom makes it binding upon all classes to fix upon a fortunate day for the commencement of the business or for the transaction of partic­ular items of it. These will be briefly mentioned.

In regard to marriages. Whether certain parties may or may not be engaged in marriage is always submitted to some fortune-teller.

The years of the birth of the six principal persons interested, or the animals under which they were born, and to which they ‘belong’ — the proposed bridegroom, his father and mother, the proposed bride, her father and mother — are made known to the selector of fortunate days, with an intimation in regard to the desired time of marriage. This is usually spoken of as handing in their ‘eight characters’. He now proceeds to decide by a reference to the five elements of nature whether the proposed time as regards year, month, and day will be propi­tious, and if so, he indicates neatly on a sheet of red paper the precise time when various important particulars should be performed, such as for the beginning of the cutting out of the wedding garments for the bride and bridegroom ; for the final adjustment of the bridal bed in the place where it is to stand by the family of the bridegroom ; for the finishing of the curtains of the bridal bed ; for the embroidering by the bride of the longevity pillows (the pillows destined to be used by herself and her husband after marriage) ; and for the entering of the bridal sedan-chair by the bride when about to start for the residence of her expected husband. No respectable heathen Chinaman in this part of the empire would think of entering upon the important business of marriage without having received the decisions of a fortune-teller indicating the lucky times for transacting the items specified. The items specified, probably in a great majority of cases, are transacted as near to the times indicated as it is at all convenient for the parties to transact them under the actual circumstances of the case.

The times selected for the performance of the particulars mentioned above are those which can be observed without the endangering of the health or life of the principal personages concerned in the contemplated marriage ; that is, those whose animals were reported to the selector of days. Among the friends and relatives of the parties there sometimes are those who, born under different animals, according to theory, should be absent while certain parts of the programme are being performed. What particular animals are to be dreaded on these occasions are mentioned on a slip of paper, which is put up in the parlor, or some other convenient and conspicuous place, sometimes near the ancestral tablets of the families. Those who were born under those animals must beware of approaching on these occasions.

In regard to the building of houses. In like manner, and for a similar reason, the aid of the selector of propitious days is invoked by the builder and proprietor of houses and hongs, and by the head men in the erection of temples, etc. In the case of temples, the ages of the neighborhood elders and head men are made known to one who is able to divine what month, day, and hour will be lucky for the performance of several kinds of labor connected with the erection of the proposed temple. In the case of building a house or hong, only the age of the owner and proprietor is reported to the selector of lucky days. He applies the rules of his art to decide on a favorable time as regards month, day, and hour ; for begin-ning to move the earth for laying the foundations of the building ; for raising the bents (if the building is made of wood) ; for putting up the ridge-pole in its place ; for hanging the great or main door of honor ; for the digging of the well, and for the making of the furnace or fireplace in the kitchen. In theory, times must be selected for the doing of these things which will not conflict with the animal under which the proprietor was born, that is, which will be propitious for him according to the doctrine of the ‘five elements’.

It is in the exercise of a kind of disinterested benevolence that a brief notice, sometimes furnished by the selector of for-tunate days, is often posted up in a conspicuous place near the building-site shortly before the raising of the bents and the ridge-pole, notifying the public what particular animal or animals are to be feared at the time when certain acts are being performed. In this way, those who were born under those animals have timely warning, so that they may absent themselves from the dangerous spot. It is believed by the Chinese that deadly or unhealthy and unlucky influences, in some way, are connected with the spot, or emanate from it on such occasions, to be feared and avoided only by those who were born in the years denoted by the specified animals. The workmen and other persons who are obnoxious to these influ-ences always absent themselves from the place at the periods when these influences are to be dreaded. Such is the profound conviction of the reality of the danger to be apprehended in the minds of the people that no such Chinaman would dare to risk himself in proximity to the spot. And doubtless many of the accidents which occur at these times are attributed to the malignant influences referred to.

In regard to the burial of the heads of families. In order to the selection of propitious times for the doing of several things connected with burials, the ages of the deceased and of his or her eldest son, as well as of his or her eldest grandson, if there be one — that is, the son of the eldest son, not the son of the eldest daughter of the deceased — must be made known to the selector of fortunate days. Sometimes the ages of the second, third, and other sons are also made known to him. The ages of the eldest son and of his eldest son, as representing the family, and as being the chief mourners according to custom, it is regarded as very important to have handed to the one who selects the times necessary to have selected, in order not to endanger the future fortunes of the family, as well as the present health and happiness of all concerned.

A fortunate time must be fixed upon when the corpse of the deceased must be put into the coffin, and when the coffin must be nailed up. Lucky times must also be selected for starting from the house with the coffin en route to the place of burial ; for beginning to dig the grave, and for depositing the coffin in the grave. Should the family conclude to place the coffin in a dead-house for a while previous to burial, a fortunate time as regards month, day, and hour must be selected when the coffin may be removed from the dwelling-house and deposited in the temporary resting-place.

Finally, in regard to this part of the subject, the fortune-teller is also required to decide the precise time when the first sacrifice shall be offered to the dead at the grave, and when the first worship of the grave-stone shall be performed by the surviving members of his family. It is not considered necessary to be so very careful in selecting the day for sacrificing to the dead at the grave on the second and subsequent occasions.

The family friends and relatives who are obnoxious to un­propitious influences on the above occasions, if duly forewarned, invariably absent themselves when they would be in danger. It is sagely surmised by the Chinese that unless requisite care be taken to prevent the approach of those unfortunate persons who were born in unlucky years, so far as these particular occasions are concerned, many and sad incidents might transpire when the corpse is being put into the coffin, or when the coffin is being nailed up, or while it is being carried forth to burial, etc.

It is considered quite important that fortunate days should be selected for the performance of various other things besides those particularly mentioned above, such as the manufacture of large and expensive idols, and the extensive and numerous annual processions of idols in the summer months through the streets of this city and suburbs, designed to drive away noxious and pestilential influences and diseases.