Jinghe Year Sixteen, Second Month, Twenty-Third Day.
According to the Book of Rites: Marriage Rites, marriage joined two families in harmony, above to serve the ancestral temples, below to continue the generations to come.
Thus, when scholars married, they observed the Three Books and Six Rites: Formal Proposal, Asking the Name, Betrothal Confirmation, Presentation of Betrothal Gifts, Setting the Wedding Date, and the Groom's Procession.
The marriage between Zhang Zai and Li Shi had long since been arranged.
When they set the wedding date, they originally chose the eighteenth day of the second month.
But the Li Family were merchants, and merchant households placed the greatest faith in yin and yang.
Landowner Li invited the most renowned diviner in the city. With the two young people's birth dates in hand, the man worked through an entire night. The next day, his expression changed.
The eighteenth day of the second month fell precisely one day before the Spring Equinox.
One of the Four Separation Days.
Separation meant yin and yang divided-a sign that husband and wife would part, and a grave taboo for marriage.
Landowner Li doted on his daughter. Merchants and scholars already stood apart; he would rather delay five days than violate this taboo.
And so they set the wedding date again, moving it to the Second Month, Twenty-Third Day.
When Zhang Zai heard about this, he merely smiled. "The Book of Rites says: marriage joins two families in harmony."
"Since it joins two families in harmony, let us follow both families' customs."
He did not believe in such things.
But his wife's family believed, and his wife believed, so he went along with it.
After all, it was only five days.
On the Second Month, Twenty-Third Day, the sky was clear and the air fresh.
Zhang Zai's