What is Chenggu Suanming (bone-weighing divination)?

It is a Chinese fate-reading practice that assigns a weight value to the zodiac sign of one's year, month, day, and hour of birth, sums the four values, and reads life tendencies from the verse (duanyu) that corresponds to the total.

How is the bone weight calculated?

Each of the year, month, day, and hour of birth has a weight value assigned in a traditional correspondence table. The four values are looked up and added together, and the resulting total determines which verse is read.

Is a heavier bone weight better?

The reading comes from the verse attached to each total rather than from the number alone. Each verse expresses a different tendency of life, so the verse text — not simply a heavier or lighter figure — carries the actual interpretation.

How does it differ from Four Pillars (BaZi)?

Four Pillars analyzes the full combination of stems and branches of the birth moment and allows fine-grained interpretation, while Chenggu Suanming condenses a life into a single summed number and its verse — quicker and simpler, but with far less interpretive range.

CHENGGU SUANMING

What is Bone-Weighing Fate Calculation (Chenggu Suanming)?

Chenggu Suanming is a Chinese fate-reading practice said to sum the weight values assigned to the zodiac signs of one’s year, month, day, and hour of birth, then read life tendencies from the verse (duanyu) corresponding to that total. It is said to have been created by Yuan Tiangang of the Tang dynasty, but no original source text has been confirmed, and the details of how it came about remain unknown.

Overview

System: Fate Reading (sums weights assigned to the birth-time zodiac signs and reads a poem)
Origin: China
What You Need: Date and time of birth
Best For: Life, money
Time Frame: Whole lifetime

Origins & History

Chenggu Suanming is a divination that uses a correspondence table assigning a "weight" value to the zodiac sign of each of a person’s year, month, day, and hour of birth, summing the four values to arrive at the weight of that person’s fortune. Tradition holds that it was created by the Tang-dynasty Taoist Yuan Tiangang, but no original source text confirming this origin has been found, and it remains a matter of legend rather than established fact.

For each possible sum of the weight values, a verse called a "duanyu" expressing that life’s tendencies is prepared, and fortune is judged by reading it. The full text of this weight-correspondence table and its verses is said to still be referenced today as a standard text across various sources, though uncertainty remains about when and how it was established.

How It Works

01Prepare the year, month, day, and hour of birth.
02Look up, in the correspondence table, the weight value assigned to the zodiac sign of each of the year, month, day, and hour.
03Sum the four values.
04Read the verse (duanyu) corresponding to the summed value and judge the tendency of one’s fortune.

What It Reveals

It is well suited to reading, quickly and simply, the weight and tendency of one’s fortune across a lifetime through a single number and verse. At the same time, much about how it came about remains uncertain, and because it is a simplified method that condenses a life into a single number, it is not well suited to fine-grained situational judgment—one should keep in mind that it offers less interpretive range than other fate-reading practices.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Chenggu Suanming (bone-weighing divination)?: It is a Chinese fate-reading practice that assigns a weight value to the zodiac sign of one's year, month, day, and hour of birth, sums the four values, and reads life tendencies from the verse (duanyu) that corresponds to the total.
How is the bone weight calculated?: Each of the year, month, day, and hour of birth has a weight value assigned in a traditional correspondence table. The four values are looked up and added together, and the resulting total determines which verse is read.
Is a heavier bone weight better?: The reading comes from the verse attached to each total rather than from the number alone. Each verse expresses a different tendency of life, so the verse text — not simply a heavier or lighter figure — carries the actual interpretation.
Who created Chenggu Suanming?: Tradition attributes it to Yuan Tiangang, a Taoist of the Tang dynasty, but no original source text confirming this origin has been found, and the attribution remains legend rather than established fact.
How does it differ from Four Pillars (BaZi)?: Four Pillars analyzes the full combination of stems and branches of the birth moment and allows fine-grained interpretation, while Chenggu Suanming condenses a life into a single summed number and its verse — quicker and simpler, but with far less interpretive range.