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