This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Adam Smith's study of the Chinese sexagenary cycle traces the documented origin of the sixty year and sixty day counting system, built from the ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches, back to a real, dated calendrical and ritual practice that long predates its later application to feng shui period and facing calculations.
That documented older system matters for a flying star entry because the numbered periods a flying star chart is calculated against are themselves built on this same inherited counting cycle, and an entry can record that layered history, a modern building calculation resting on a documented, centuries older calendrical system, rather than treating the flying star numbering as though it were invented for feng shui alone.
A flying star entry therefore notes, where useful, how the period and cycle calculations underlying a star's placement connect back to this documented stem and branch system, since Smith's own research shows the connection is a real historical fact about where the numbering comes from, not an incidental coincidence of terminology. Smith's own research also documents that the sexagenary cycle's earliest attested use was for day counting in Shang period divination records, centuries before any feng shui application, and an entry notes that documented origin honestly as evidence of the system's real historical depth.