Which Days Are Prone to Regret and Disputes in Transactions?

The "Regret Days" People Fear Most in Folk Tradition

Among businesspeople, there are those who to this day refuse to sign contracts or hand over deposits on certain types of days. Ask them why, and you will get different answers — but when it comes down to the almanac, the most commonly cited are the "Po Day" (Breaking Day) and the "Shou Day" (Receiving Day).

The Po Day, or Yue Po (Monthly Break), falls once each month in the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches calendar. It is the day that directly opposes the month's ruling branch — the Jian Xing (month establishment star). Traditional belief holds that anything settled on this day is prone to "breaking apart" — not necessarily that day itself, but that complications will arise later and agreements will prove unstable. How to find it: for example, in the first lunar month the ruling branch is Yin (Tiger); its direct clash is Shen (Monkey), so any day in the first month with an Earthly Branch of Shen is a Yue Po day. In folk practice, people generally push paperwork back a day or two when a monthly break falls on the intended date.

The Shou Day is technically rated as a neutral "Ping" (level) day among the twelve Jian Xing, and is not considered particularly inauspicious. But there is a folk notion that Shou days are good for "receiving" things — not for "sending things out." Money going out, goods going out, contracts being signed out — none of these are supposed to flow smoothly. Personally, I find this reasoning rather strained, more likely a later elaboration than an original principle. It deserves less weight than the Yue Po logic.

The Divine Sha That Actually Matter

The date-selection system contains hundreds of Shen Sha (divine sha, or day-governing spirits), most of which have no direct bearing on transactions. The ones practitioners repeatedly emphasize come down to a handful:

Gou Jiao Sha (Hook-Entangle Sha): This sha relates to the position of the year's Tai Sui. On days when Gou Jiao is triggered, tradition holds that disputes and contract reversals are more likely. Exactly which days trigger it depends on the current year's Shen Sha table, and different schools calculate it slightly differently — there is no single unified method.

Tian Zei Day (Heavenly Thief Day): Clearly marked in the almanac. Folk belief says this day makes one prone to being cheated or taken advantage of under the radar. Buyers paying on a Tian Zei day fear receiving goods that do not match the description; sellers receiving payment fear problems with the instruments of payment. Both sides are wary, so when someone spots Tian Zei on the calendar, the transaction usually gets pushed back.

Wang Wang Day (Going-and-Gone Day): In classical texts this sha primarily governs travel, but it was later extended to cover anything "sent outward," including outgoing funds, contract signing, and document dispatch. The traditional concern is that what leaves on a Wang Wang day tends to not come back — or that the other party, upon receiving it, will raise a dispute.

Li Day (Separation Day): Among the twelve Jian Xing, the "Li" (separation) day carries the folk association that partnerships formed on it tend to dissolve. For a quick cash-and-carry transaction this may matter little, but for long-term collaborations, installment payments, or agency authorization agreements that require sustained performance, older practitioners will specifically avoid Li days.

It is worth noting that the weight given to these sha varies considerably across schools. Some practitioners hold that sha are merely surface manifestations and that the true determinant of fortune is the generating and controlling relationships among the Five Elements (Wu Xing) of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches; others treat the sha as the primary practical tool. I have seen both approaches used with cases cited in their favor, and there is no basis for claiming one is definitively more accurate.

The "Qi Transition Period" Around Solar Terms

There is another category of concern that is not about a single day but about a stretch of time: the three days before and after a Jie Qi (solar term) transition.

Traditional thought holds that solar terms are nodes at which Qi is shifting, and during this window the Five Elements' Qi is unstable — better to stay still than to move. Applied to transactions, the main worry is distorted information transfer: parties negotiating a price around a solar term tend to experience miscommunication, with one side believing terms are settled while the other considers them still open, and then each holding to a different version of the agreement afterward.

Honestly, I am uncertain whether this has real merit. Solar terms are calibrated divisions of the sun's ecliptic longitude; what connects them to cognitive misalignment between parties is not something I find a reliable explanatory path for. That said, some people do specifically avoid signing contracts around solar terms — at the cost of waiting only a few days, it amounts to a low-cost precaution.

The Question of Clashes Between the Parties' BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny) and the Day

Everything above concerns the day itself in isolation. Date selection adds a further dimension: whether the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches of the transaction day clash with or control those in the parties' BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny).

The simplest version: if one party's Day Master is controlled by the Heavenly Stem of the transaction day, that day is not auspicious for that person to act. For instance, if a person's Day Master is Jia Wood and the transaction day's Heavenly Stem is Geng Metal — Geng controls Jia — folk belief says this party is at a disadvantage on that day, likely to be led by the other side and prone to regret afterward.

A more refined approach looks at the relationship between one's year branch and the Tai Sui. In years when someone is Fan Tai Sui (clashing with Tai Sui) — meaning their year branch is the same as or directly opposes the current year's branch — tradition advises extra care in choosing dates for major financial transactions throughout that year, and cautions specifically against layering Fan Tai Sui energy on top of already-unfavorable days like Yue Po, Wang Wang, or Tian Zei.

In practice, of course, transaction dates are negotiated between parties. Buyers have schedules, sellers have schedules, banks have disbursement cycles — the room to select a date purely by classical standards is limited. The folk approach is generally to avoid the most obviously inauspicious days in broad strokes, pick a relatively favorable hour if possible, aim for good enough rather than perfect, and simply not force things on the worst possible day.