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.
Related Methods
References
- 称骨歌（称骨算命の重量対応表と断語）