What Is Tong Shu?
Tong Shu (通書), also known as Tung Shing or the Chinese Almanac, is one of the longest-continuously-published calendars in the world. Produced without interruption for over four thousand years, it catalogues every day of the year according to the Chinese lunisolar calendar. Each day is described by dozens of parameters: Day Officers, zodiac signs, elements, Year and Month Breakers, and auspicious and inauspicious hours. The almanac is actively used in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and among Chinese communities worldwide — not only by Feng Shui masters, but by millions of ordinary people planning weddings, business openings and important journeys.
4,000 Years of Observing the Sky
The roots of Tong Shu trace back to the Yellow Emperor Huangdi, a mythical ruler from around 2700 BCE. Legend holds that Huangdi commissioned astronomers to create the first systematic calendar based on celestial observations and the lunar cycle. Over successive dynasties — Shang, Zhou, Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing — the almanac was refined and standardised. During the Han era (206 BCE–220 CE), astronomers integrated the Five Elements system and Ba Zi Four Pillars into the daily calendar. For centuries Tong Shu was published by the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy, and its contents were treated as official state knowledge. Today it is published annually by several schools of tradition: Hong Kong's Tong Shu Publishing, Taiwanese and Malaysian editions, each varying slightly in the interpretation of certain parameters.
Structure of the Almanac: What Each Day Contains
Each day in Tong Shu is described by several key systems. First is the Day Officer (值日神), one of 12 energies rotating in 12-day cycles. The Officers of Success (成) and Opening (开) favour initiatives; Break (破) and Close (闭) are inauspicious. The second system is the Breakers: the Year Breaker (岁破) is a day when the zodiac sign of the day clashes directly with the Chinese year sign; the Month Breaker (月破) does the same with the lunar month. The third layer is the 28 Lunar Mansions (宿), mapped to the Moon's movement across the sky. The fourth is auspicious stars (吉神) and inauspicious stars (凶神) — dozens of classical names describing the quality of the day. The almanac also indicates recommended and prohibited activities — the list may include 20–30 categories: weddings, moving house, funerals, planting, roofing, opening a business, signing a contract.
10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches
The foundation of Tong Shu is the Stems and Branches system (干支, Ganzhi). The 10 Heavenly Stems (Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) represent the 5 elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) in yin and yang forms. The 12 Earthly Branches (Zi to Hai) correspond to the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. Together they form a 60-element cycle (六十甲子) that is the basic unit of time in the Chinese calendar — each year, month, day and hour has an assigned Stem-Branch pair. This 60-day cycle, repeating continuously for thousands of years, enables the precise calculation of the Four Pillars of Ba Zi for any moment in history.
How Tong Shu Is Used Today
Today Tong Shu is available as a thick, printed book published each year by several publishers. The most notable is Tong Shu Publishing from Hong Kong and publishers in Malaysia and Singapore. When planning weddings, families in Hong Kong and Singapore routinely consult the almanac, looking for days with the Sign of Success or Opening, free of Breakers and with a positive marker for wedding ceremonies. Shop, restaurant and office openings are planned on Opening (开) or Success (成) days. Feng Shui masters such as Joey Yap, Lillian Too and Ken Lai run courses on almanac interpretation and publish their own annual calendars based on Tong Shu. Digital tools — including mobile apps — carry this tradition into the internet age, enabling fast searches for auspicious dates without reaching for a physical book.
Tong Shu and Ba Zi — Differences and How They Complement Each Other
Tong Shu and Ba Zi (Four Pillars of Destiny) are two distinct but related systems. Tong Shu assesses the quality of a day for everyone — regardless of who is taking action. Ba Zi is a personal horoscope: calculated from the date and hour of birth, it reveals the individual arrangement of the five elements and their relationship to each day. A complete auspicious date analysis combines both: first find days that are Excellent or Good in Tong Shu (no Breakers), then verify the day doesn't clash with the person's birth sign. A Success day may be unfavourable for a person born in the Year of the Rat if the day sign is Horse (clash). The feng-shui.life app combines both approaches — simply enter a date of birth to receive a personalised assessment of every day.
Criticism and Limits
Critics point out that different editions of Tong Shu can vary in interpreting the same days — different schools apply different rules for calculating Officers or star listings. Western scholars treat the system as historical and cultural, not scientific. However, many practitioners emphasise that the value of Tong Shu lies in a framework for thinking: instead of acting spontaneously, we plan with attention to time and context. It is a philosophy, not a prophecy. The important thing is not to treat the almanac as an oracle, but as one tool among many when making decisions — alongside common sense, situational analysis and one's own intuition.