Pengzu's hundred taboos: all 22 lines
Every day in the almanac carries two lines of "Pengzu's taboos." They look like classical Chinese, but the rule behind them is simple: one line goes with the day's heavenly stem, the other with its earthly branch.
The ten heavenly stems
| Day stem | Taboo | Chinese |
|---|---|---|
| Jia 甲 | Jia days: do not open the storehouse, or wealth drains away. | 甲不開倉財物耗散 |
| Yi 乙 | Yi days: do not plant, or a thousand seedlings will not grow. | 乙不栽植千株不長 |
| Bing 丙 | Bing days: do not repair the stove, or misfortune follows. | 丙不修灶必見災殃 |
| Ding 丁 | Ding days: do not shave your head, or sores break out on the scalp. | 丁不剃頭頭必生瘡 |
| Wu 戊 | Wu days: do not take over land, or its owner has bad luck. | 戊不受田田主不祥 |
| Ji 己 | Ji days: do not break a contract, or both parties lose. | 己不破券二比並亡 |
| Geng 庚 | Geng days: do not set up the loom, or the weaving comes to nothing. | 庚不經絡織機虛張 |
| Xin 辛 | Xin days: do not make sauce, or the master never gets to taste it. | 辛不合醬主人不嘗 |
| Ren 壬 | Ren days: do not release water, or it will be hard to hold back. | 壬不泱水更難提防 |
| Gui 癸 | Gui days: do not go to court, or your case is weak and your opponent strong. | 癸不詞訟理弱敵強 |
The twelve earthly branches
| Day branch | Taboo | Chinese |
|---|---|---|
| Zi 子 | Zi days: do not consult a diviner, or you invite trouble. | 子不問卜自惹禍殃 |
| Chou 丑 | Chou days: do not hold a capping ceremony, or the wearer never returns home. | 丑不冠帶主不還鄉 |
| Yin 寅 | Yin days: do not make offerings, or the spirits will not accept them. | 寅不祭祀神鬼不嘗 |
| Mao 卯 | Mao days: do not dig a well, or the water will not be sweet. | 卯不穿井水泉不香 |
| Chen 辰 | Chen days: do not weep, or another bereavement follows. | 辰不哭泣必主重喪 |
| Si 巳 | Si days: do not travel far, or your money stays hidden away. | 巳不遠行財物伏藏 |
| Wu 午 | Wu days: do not thatch a roof, or the owner will have to move. | 午不苫蓋屋主更張 |
| Wei 未 | Wei days: do not take medicine, or poison enters the gut (a folk saying only). | 未不服藥毒氣入腸 |
| Shen 申 | Shen days: do not set up a bed, or ghosts come into the room. | 申不安床鬼祟入房 |
| You 酉 | You days: do not entertain guests, or they get drunk and rowdy. | 酉不會客醉坐顛狂 |
| Xu 戌 | Xu days: do not eat dog, or strange things climb into bed. | 戌不吃犬作怪上床 |
| Hai 亥 | Hai days: do not marry, or it bodes ill for the groom. | 亥不嫁娶不利新郎 |
Taken from our calendar code (lunar.js). Example: a Jia-Zi day carries "Jia days: do not open the storehouse, or wealth drains away" and "Zi days: do not consult a diviner, or you invite trouble".
How to read them
The taboos are credited to Pengzu, the legendary long-lived sage of Chinese folklore, but they are really old everyday experience and superstition turned into rhymes: "Ding days: do not shave your head," "Si days: do not travel far." Today most people treat them as cultural color and a bit of fun. For anything that matters, look at the day's full favorable and avoid lists and your own situation. A line like the Wei-day one about medicine is a folk saying only; follow your doctor, not the almanac.
Look up the almanac for any day
It opens on today (Taiwan time). Change the date to see any day's favorable and avoid lists, each with a plain-English note, plus the day's clash, fetus god, Pengzu taboos, lucky directions and the good and bad hours. Everything is calculated in your browser.
A common misconception
There are a hundred taboos.
"Hundred" just means "many." There are ten lines for the stems and twelve for the branches, 22 in all, and each day uses two.
A straight word: the almanac is a traditional calculation
The favorable and avoid lists, the spirits and the good hours in a Chinese almanac come from the calculation rules of traditional almanac books, and different publishers sometimes disagree. We compute them with the open-source calendar library lunar.js, using exactly the same rules as our date selection finder. It is a piece of cultural heritage, not a scientific forecast: for anything that matters, go by the real circumstances and your own judgment. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.
Beyond the almanac: your own BaZi chart
Enter your birth date for a free Four Pillars chart: your Day Master, Five Elements and Ten Gods.
Pengzu's taboos: common questions
How do Pengzu's taboos work?
Each day has two lines: one for the day's heavenly stem and one for its earthly branch. A Jia-Zi day, for example, carries "Jia days: do not open the storehouse, or wealth drains away" and "Zi days: do not consult a diviner, or you invite trouble".