How Six Lines Differs from Traditional Almanac Apps
Activity-specific timing from classical source texts, not generic star ratings
The problem with star ratings
Most Chinese almanac apps follow the same pattern. Open the app, see today's date, and find a single score: three stars, or a red "good day" badge, or a percentage. Apps like 萬年曆 (Wannianli), 中華萬年曆, and 黃曆通勝 all reduce the day to one number.
This feels simple. It is also misleading.
The classical system was never designed to rate days generically. The 1739 imperial Xieji Bianfang Shu (協紀辨方書), compiled under the Qianlong Emperor, evaluates activities individually. A day might be auspicious for travel and inauspicious for construction. The source text is explicit: collapsing this into a single rating loses the information that matters.
What Six Lines does differently
Six Lines follows the Xieji Bianfang Shu directly. Each day is evaluated per activity (宜/忌). You see which activities are auspicious, which are inauspicious, and why. The reasoning is visible. Nothing is hidden behind an opaque algorithm.
This is not a simplification of the tradition. It is the tradition. The imperial court used activity-specific evaluations. Six Lines restores that original approach rather than inventing a simpler one.
Transparent reasoning
When a traditional almanac app marks a day as "bad," you cannot ask why. The score is final. Six Lines shows its work. Each activity evaluation includes the classical factors that determined the result. You can agree or disagree, but you can see the logic.
This matters because the Chinese almanac tradition is scholarly. It has rules, sources, and centuries of commentary. Reducing it to a color-coded badge treats a living tradition as a toy.
Beyond the almanac
Traditional almanac apps stop at the calendar. Six Lines is also a complete I-Ching reference. All 64 hexagrams with three commentary layers: original classical Chinese text, character-by-character Hatcher Matrix translations, and original interpretive essays. The complete Yilin (4,096 verses) with original ink brush artwork. Liu Yao structural analysis with najia branch mapping and Six Relatives.
The almanac is one surface of a deeper reference tool grounded in the same classical source texts.
Comparison
| Feature | Traditional Almanac Apps | Six Lines |
|---|---|---|
| Day evaluation | Generic star rating or score | Per-activity (宜/忌) from Xieji Bianfang Shu |
| Reasoning shown | No | Yes. Classical factors visible for each activity |
| Source text | Unspecified or proprietary | 1739 imperial Xieji Bianfang Shu |
| I-Ching reference | None | 64 hexagrams, 3 commentary layers, Liu Yao analysis |
| Yilin verses | None | 4,096 verses with original ink brush artwork |
| Design approach | Cluttered, ad-supported | Contemplative minimalism. No ads |
Who this is for
If you want a quick green-or-red badge for the day, a traditional almanac app will serve you. If you want to understand what the classical system actually says about specific activities on specific days, Six Lines is built for that.
The tradition deserves honest tools. Not simplified ones.