Open Questions

Who actually devised Zi Wei Dou Shu, and does the traditional ascription to Chen Tuan hold up?

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Who actually devised Zi Wei Dou Shu, and does the traditional ascription to Chen Tuan hold up?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://divinity.interactivelion.com/open-questions-index/who-actually-devised-zi-wei-dou-shu-and-does-the-traditional-ascription-to-chen-tuan-hold-up.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Who actually devised Zi Wei Dou Shu, and does the traditional ascription to Chen Tuan hold up?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://divinity.interactivelion.com/open-questions-index/who-actually-devised-zi-wei-dou-shu-and-does-the-traditional-ascription-to-chen-tuan-hold-up

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-who-actually-devised-zi-wei-dou-shu-and,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Who actually devised Zi Wei Dou Shu, and does the traditional ascription to Chen Tuan hold up?},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://divinity.interactivelion.com/open-questions-index/who-actually-devised-zi-wei-dou-shu-and-does-the-traditional-ascription-to-chen-tuan-hold-up},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Open Question

The system is traditionally ascribed to the Daoist adept Chen Tuan, c. 871-989, but the attribution cannot be verified against any surviving text from his lifetime, and the earliest manuscripts describing the method postdate him by centuries.

What would resolve this A textual historical study tracing the earliest surviving Zi Wei Dou Shu manuscripts and comparing their content and terminology against securely dated Chen Tuan texts.

OpenSinology; history of Chinese astrology; textual criticismHo Peng Yoke, Chinese Mathematical Astrology: Reaching Out to the Stars

Cross-Tradition Connections