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Chinese Astrology: The Most Comprehensive Study of the Subject Ever Published in the English Language
Traces the history of Chinese astrology, explains its principles, and interprets its portent with numerous horoscopes.
411 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Derek Walters
94 books12 followersDerek Walters is a leading authority on the history and practice of Chinese astrology. His lectures take him around the world, and he has written a number of successful books, including The Secrets of Chinese Astrology and The Feng Shui Handbook.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 21, 2014
I picked up a copy of Derek Walters book Chinese Astrology as I saw it had Ssu Ma Ch'ien's (Sima Qian) treatise on Astrology in it. I'm always a little skeptical of books written on astrology, particularly books written on a foreign subject for a western audience. However this book had lots of gorgeous diagrams from original manuscripts, lots of Chinese characters throughout the text, and the author was someone I'd actually heard of. Walters actually wrote the only book on Feng Shui that I will ever read, it was actually mostly a reprinting of De Groots work on the subject, with some modern updates, very interesting. So even though I found this book in the "dubious" section in half price books I decided I would give it a try.
I think I was a little biased towards it to start with as he talked about his research done at SOAS and the British Library and Museum. That sounded just lovely to me. But I have to say the book was very enjoyable it drew on actual Chinese sources, literature and archaeological evidence, sometimes thousands of years old. Walters was able to give an interesting and informative description of the history and practices of astrology in Chinese history. How it was used, how it changed over time, and what everything meant. All very interesting. Though despite his best efforts and including many tables and appendices I still feel a bit lost at figuring out stems, branches and lunar and solar calenders!
But it was really interesting to see the history involved, to read the very early astrological treatises was really great. And later to look at the collection of horoscopes from the Dun Huang caves and see "fate calculation" in action was fascinating. Oh I do hope one day to be able to read such things for myself.
It was a good book written by someone who believed in what they were writing, and understood the history and scholarship that went behind it all. And it has Sima Qian's treatise!
I think I was a little biased towards it to start with as he talked about his research done at SOAS and the British Library and Museum. That sounded just lovely to me. But I have to say the book was very enjoyable it drew on actual Chinese sources, literature and archaeological evidence, sometimes thousands of years old. Walters was able to give an interesting and informative description of the history and practices of astrology in Chinese history. How it was used, how it changed over time, and what everything meant. All very interesting. Though despite his best efforts and including many tables and appendices I still feel a bit lost at figuring out stems, branches and lunar and solar calenders!
But it was really interesting to see the history involved, to read the very early astrological treatises was really great. And later to look at the collection of horoscopes from the Dun Huang caves and see "fate calculation" in action was fascinating. Oh I do hope one day to be able to read such things for myself.
It was a good book written by someone who believed in what they were writing, and understood the history and scholarship that went behind it all. And it has Sima Qian's treatise!
Displaying 1 of 1 review