At a glance
- Reading focus
- Check Zhang Guo attribution separately from surviving compilation layers.
Definition and details
Guo Lao is a traditional name for Zhang Guo and became associated with methods using luminaries, positions and additional factors. An immortal’s name on a title does not establish authorship. Check contents and prefaces, distinguishing a work, a named school and a later collection rather than calling every five-planet text the same book.
Structure and history
The Xing Ming Su Yuan account identifies an unknown compiler and criticizes stories of Zhang Guo’s oral teaching and miraculous meetings across centuries. It also distinguishes a later expanded Guo Lao Xing Zong. This supports a history of association and criticism, not a secure Tang composition date; preserve those doubts alongside the prestigious title.
A concrete example
The Star-learning compendium’s account identifies it as a resource for later students of Guo Lao methods. Compare one topic—luminaries, positions or temporal limits—across the collections and record agreements and differences. Passage-level checking avoids attributing a chapter to Zhang Guo because of a name resemblance or mistaking new notes for original text.
Context and limits
Related texts mix computation, mythology and social judgments, requiring explicit layers. Historical status, gender and wealth verdicts should not determine modern personal worth, nor should disease or lifespan passages become forecasts. Verifiable positions do not establish either attribution or fortune rules; preserve witness information and unresolved questions alongside the reading.
References & further reading
Historical sources document ideas and rules of their time, not empirical proof of predictive accuracy. Source notes identify the nature and scope of each reference.
- 星命溯源（四庫全書本）· 全覽Primary / tradition source
Account explicitly criticizes attribution to Zhang Guo and miraculous chronology, distinguishing it from later Guo Lao Xing Zong.
- 星學大成（四庫全書本）· 全覽Primary / tradition source
Public-domain astral compendium with critical bibliographic account; separates celestial positions from fortune judgments.