MODERN LIFE is a mass of dilemmas. We face myriad decisions: when to renovate the flat; when to buy a new bed; when to get married. Even minor matters, such as when to wash your hair, require a decision.
Surrounded by such conundrums, large and small, some men and women become so stressed they resort to psychologists to ease their angst, but even experts cannot run their whole lives for them.
But there is a panacea for all these problems, and for the bargain price of just $8 you need never make another decision again.
The answers lie in the red book. Not the Communist Mao Zedong's brain-washing 'little red book', but something just as powerful - so much so that many Chinese think of it as sacred.
It is the Tung Sing, also known as the 'Chinese bible' or 'Chinese encyclopedia' - the leading Chinese almanac. Originally named 'Lik Shu', or the calendar, the book was renamed Tung Sing because shu sounds similar to the word for loss and the fear of losing money gambling rendered the title too unpopular, says Choi Park-lai, author of the most current version. So it was renamed Tung Sing, literally 'general win'. (General meaning the predictions can be applied to all people.)
This little red book is not a new fad. It has been in existence since the Hsia dynasty, from around 4,000 BC. In ancient China, the calendar was a sacred document, sponsored by the reigning monarch. At a time when there was no television or radio, Tung Sing was the only tool for the government to deliver weather information and other advice to the nation. In the Ching dynasty, the Manchu government began to allow ordinary people to print the almanac and Tung Sing spread all over China. Then an astrologer in Guangzhou, named Choi Chui-ba, decided to join the trend and published Tung Sing under his own brand name Choi Gen Po Tong. Little did he know that his red book would become the only version to survive.
In 1912, when the Republic of China was set up, the Chinese population was hungry for new ideas and the popularity of the old-fashioned almanac waned.
