About Date Selection

I was reading an article recently about someone complaining that he received a wrong date for marriage solemnization from a well-known Master. A further check with the Tong Shu (Chinese Almanac) confirms the date is a “big no-no” to get married. Did the Master give him the date by mistake?


What is date selection all about?

First of all, we need to understand there are many methods of date selection and we use them for different purposes. BaZi Method, Dong Gong Method, Liu Ren System, Qi Men Dun Jia, Xuan Kong Da Gua, just to name a few. Generally, there are two types of date selection, namely Personal Date Selection and Feng Shui Date Selection.

A personal date selection relates to choosing a date for oneself to carry out certain activities like getting married, signing a contract, going for an operation, etc. It is a date for the ‘human’ to do certain things deemed important in life.

A feng shui date selection relates to choosing a date to carry out activities for a property or the land that we dwell in. Start of renovation, construction of a building, ground breaking are examples of activities that require a feng shui date selection. This is the date for the ‘land’ if we want to do some changes to it.

In the date selection process, two things must be considered. One without the other does not augurs well as far as date selection is concern. The first consideration is the event or type of activity and the other is the person involved in the activity.

Date selection is about finding a good day and time where the energies are available and can be used to support the event. If you find a good day but the required Qi is not there, that day is not auspicious for that event.

Assume you have found a good day, the next step is to evaluate if it is suitable to the person is involved in the activity. We use the person’s BaZi to determine the suitability of the date and activity. If it is not suitable, even a good day cannot be used.

Why date selection?

The idea is to ensure that during an event such as a signing ceremony, the energies are prime and available to support the parties involved. It is to ensure that during the ceremony, the event will proceed smoothly.

However, does this means that there will be no breach of contract many months down the road? Will the project proceed without any incidents? Will it prevent a married couple from getting a divorce after years of marriage?

Steps before date selection….

Prior to choosing the date for an intended activity, we need to determine the suitability of the person’s role or job function, partnership compatibility and the phase of life the person is going through. For this, we use BaZi analysis to evaluate.


For example, when it comes to getting married, we first have to settle the compatibility issues. The couple needs to understand each other’s personal characters and determine if they can live with it for the rest of their lives. Each one needs to accept the other as who they are before they can even discuss marriage. Couples have to decide for themselves if this is what they want.


Starting a business also goes through similar process. We need to evaluate if running a business is suitable for the person and when would be the appropriate time to start the business. Right job function, right timing is what we are looking for.

Having understood this, what has date selection got to do with preventing a divorce or preventing a business from going bankrupt?

Tong Shu for Date Selection

Traditional Chinese culture has been using the Chinese almanac as the basis of date selection for a long time. The Tong Shu is too generic and it is at best, a ‘safety’ date selection method. If we were to strictly follow those dates in Tong Shu, we will find that there are limited number of days we can use. If it does not fit in your schedule, what is going to happen? No business contract to be signed? Cannot get married?

The situation is such that Date Selection specialists these days have to refer to the Tong Shu first before they confirmed the final date. Why is this so? In the case of getting married, the folks from the older generation will check the Tong Shu. If it is a bad day according to the Tong Shu, they will doubt the Master for choosing such a date, even though it may be the BEST date for the couple.

As discussed earlier, we choose a date based on the event as well as the suitability to the key people involved in the event. But it is unfortunate that if the Tong Shu says it is bad, we are unable to use it.

Conclusion

Referring to the opening paragraph above, we do not want to speculate if the Master made a mistake or not. It may well be that the date selected is good for the couple and their immediate family members from both sides, even though the Tong Shu says it is bad.

If one is to allow the Tong Shu to dictate the date selection process, why consider engaging a Date Selection Specialist? Just use the Tong Shu to select the date. It may save you a few hundred dollars and frustrations.