Xieji Bianfang Shu 欽定協紀辨方書 original — imperial compilation
The Imperially Commissioned Manual for Harmonising the Seasons and Discriminating the Directions: the Qing state's answer to a chaotic almanac market — thirty-six juan that both systematised auspicious-day selection and publicly refuted the spirits it could not justify.
Classical Texts Register · ← all 28 titles
Identity card
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | 欽定協紀辨方書 Xieji Bianfang Shu |
attributed_author | Imperial commission: directed by Prince Zhuang 和碩莊親王允祿 et al. under imperial command; chief editors 總裁 Zhang Zhao 張照, Mei Juecheng 梅瑴成, He Guozong 何國宗 |
attribution_status | original 原著 — official compilation; the commissioning chain is documentary, not legendary |
| Dates | 1739: memorial by Jin Ai to rework the 選擇通書 and 萬年書, approved by the Board of Rites; 1740: title fixed by imperial rescript; 1741 (Qianlong 6), twelfth month: imperially written preface completed; 1780: entered into the Siku compilation |
| Extent | 36 juan |
| School | Date selection 擇日 — the official compendium 官修總匯 |
| Full text | Wikisource (Siku recension, 36 juan) · Kanripo KR3g0051 · ctext (juan 5) · archive.org (juan 14–15) |
What it contains
Per the collation register, twelve divisions 十二門:
本原 first principles · 義例 rules and precedents · 立成 ready tables · 宜忌 do's and don'ts · 用事 activities · 公規 public norms · 年表 year tables · 月表 month tables · 日表 day tables · 利用 practical application · 附錄 appendix · 辨訛 refutation of error.
Technical content noted in the register: derivation of the spirit-stars 神煞起例 with corrections of the received derivations; the twelve officers 建除十二神; 28-lodge selection 二十八宿選擇; matching the principal 相主; reinforcing the dragon and supporting the mountain 補龍扶山; controlling the sha 制煞; the sun's arrival by direction 太陽到方.
Why this title matters to a calculating engine
It is the register's benchmark for date-selection arithmetic: a state-commissioned, catalogued work that states the derivations of the spirit-stars rather than only the verdicts — and that includes a division (辨訛) devoted to rejecting derivations it considers wrong. Where our date-selection module needs a derivation of record rather than a folk table, this is the source class it points to. One caution carried over from the register: the absolute epoch anchor of the 28-lodge rotation is a convention, not a computable certainty — see the errata notes on external almanac anchoring.
Where it sits in the tradition
Matrix row: date selection 擇日／通書 main body ◎, Three-Cycle 三元 minor △. It governs the same territory as the commercial almanacs in this register — 選擇宗鏡, 象吉通書, 鰲頭通書, 永寧通書 — but from the official side, which is precisely why the two sides' verdicts must never be merged.
Related
full register · School Dispute Register · Errata · Methodology