THE ALMANAC 通書
TungShu originated from HuangLi (黃曆, the "Yellow Calendar"), which legend attributes to the Yellow Emperor. It has changed its form numerous times throughout the years during all the dynasties; the latest version was said to have been edited under the Qing dynasty and was called the TungShu (通書). Tung (通) means "all", Shu (書) means "book", so Tung Shu literally meant "All-knowing Book". However, in Cantonese Chinese and Mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation of the word for "book" is a homophone of a word for defeated (輸), so Tung Shu sounded like "Defeated in All Things" (通輸). Therefore, the name was changed to TungShing (通勝), which means "Victorious in All Things"
That is the common crap as quoted by the Wikipedia. In truth, TungShu 通書 has 2 versions during the dynastic period. One for the emperor’s household while the other the commoner. In the olden days, transportation is not as advanced as today. It takes a lot of effort to distribute TungShu to the vast population of the commoner and it became rather pragmatic to actually localized production of TungShu by the commoner and such has been vested upon the shoulder of a small number of families that were responsible to produce TungShu for the public. Therefore commoner’s TungShu production became a local enterprise.
THE COMMONER TUNGSHU 人民通書
The common TungShu 通書 that we find in bookstores are GuangJing Tang 廣經堂 and YongJing Tang 永經堂 from HongKong. Both are the household names being led by the patriarch grandmaster Cai BoLi 蔡伯勵, known to have been the official FengShui master for Li KaShing 李嘉誠. Yet, tycoon Li only employs him for general date selections. The master that put Tycoon Li as what he is today is the late grandmaster ChenBo 陳伯, another true lineage holder of YangGong Fa. However, both of these TungShu from GuangJing Tang 廣經堂 and YongJing Tang 永經堂 are nothing more of TungShu for the commoner. Chinese metaphysics practitioners preferred another set of ThungShu specially crafted for date selections purposes. We called it Specialized Date Selection TungShu.
RED COVER TUNGSHU 紅皮通書
Specialized Date Selection TungShu are mostly produced in Taiwan and they are commonly called the Red Cover TungShu 紅皮通書. The common brands are liked ZhengFu Tang 正福堂, JuFu Tang 聚福堂, XinFa Tang 信發堂, LingXian Zhi TungShu BianLan 林先知通書便覽 and others. JuFu Tang 聚福堂 is the specialized date selections with emphasised on the 天星 position and location of the Yellow Path 黄道 in date selections, produced by Lu FengYuan 呂逢元, patriarch of the Lu lineage of FengShui family that specialized in date selections. As it is a not so common TungShu, it will only make sense to the disciples of this family. The Specialized Date Selection TungShu also comprises of the fixed entry and the dynamic entry. The fixed entries comprise of manuals of the art of divinations, date selections, FengShui and the sorts of Esoteric Chinese Metaphysics while the remaining dynamic entries that required annual updates are the movements of the 7 celestial bodies, annual natal chart for astrology, time and space and the common day to day classifications of auspiciousness and otherwise.
As with everything Taiwan, there seems to be a big Hoo-Ha when an entry in the TungShu Diary of the Red Cover TungShu indicated strongly that on a certain day, landslide and natural disaster ought to happen and it smack right to the nose of the Taiwanese that such incident did occur as predicted! Called it strange or meaningful coincidence?
WHAT IS INSIDE A COMMON TUNGSHU?
Since the Qing period, this sacred book has lost most of its truth, especially in the art of date selections. The remaining entries of the TungShu 通書 were added as time passes, thus as it is to date, we inherited with the sort of TungShu 通書 comprises of the fixed entry and the dynamic entry. The fixed entries comprise of manuals of the common art of divination, date selections, literature and the sorts of Chinese Encyclopedia while the remaining dynamic entries that required annual updates are the movements of the 7 celestial bodies, annual natal chart for astrology, time and space and the common day to day classifications of auspiciousness and otherwise.
The first few pages are the most common natal chart provided to give a glimpse of what to come for the coming new year. Read HERE for 2017 forecast...
A CHAPTER ON DATE SELECTION
A manual of Date Selection was inserted for the benefits of the commoner. It comprises of the assumed not so sophisticated method of date selections. In the preface to the manual, it states that 為九流之一, meaning the subject of date selection is one of the 9 schools of thoughts available at that time. It does not mean to say that what has been included in the TungShu is a method of date selection that is deemed to be the easiest at its lowest form - implying also DongGong date selection method is for "kindergarten" level. 九流, can have many connotations. When people say, 讲一流，做九流, meaning what you say is of highest quality but what you do is at the lowest standards, 九流 here means a stigma of the lousiest form available. But it is untrue, where 九流 here implying 九流十家, the 9 streams of the 10 families of school of thoughts, philosophical schools of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (770-220 BC), viz Confucians 儒家, Daoists 道家, Yin and Yang 陰陽家, Legalists 法家, Logicians 名家, Mohists 墨家, Diplomats 縱橫家, Miscellaneous 雜家, and Agriculturalists 農家. The passage that comes after "is one of the 9 schools of thoughts", 為九流之一, is 即陰陽家是也, meaning "namely YingYang School of Thoughts is this". How you translate these words also reflect how competent you are in understanding the text.十家
THE OTHER ARTS OF DIVINATION
The fixed annexation comprises of various arts of divination commonly found practice by the masses to predict fortunes of new borns such as The Emperor's Body Part Methodology, 28 Constellations, Past Lives, Golden Flowers, Palm Reading, Face Reading, Occult, Phenomenology Prediction, Coin Tossing Prediction, Earth Deity Prediction and the famous, Three Syllabus Poem...
At almost the last chapters of the TungShu, it comprises of a Diary illustrating the concerns for the particular days including the ShenSha stars and compatibility for activities to be executed for the particular days including things to be avoided.
WHAT IS INSIDE THE RED COVER TUNGSHU?
Unlike the commoner TungShu, the Red Cover TungShu fixed entry comprises of the entire Compendium of SanHe and SanYuan date selections and FengShui. That is the reason why it is called a Specialized TungShu not for the commoner but for mainly Chinese Meta physicist. All that is to be known about the art of SanHe and SanYuan are contained within minus the instruction of how each and every arts to be applied. For such you will have to enroll to the respective schools that they called, sect. These sorts of Red Cover TungShu will put to shame all those modern TungShu Diary produced by English speaking FengShui motivational Guru be it from the Big Sister Company or the Money squeezing Academy of chinese metaphysics (MsAocm). The question is, do you still hook on the craps, now knowing that there are better things available out there?