Chinese Astrology began to come of age by about the second century BC. It was at that time the  court Astrologer Sima Qian wrote an important work called Records of the Grand Historian. His history included detailed information on various methods of fortune telling and related astronomy topics to include a catalog of star names.

By the way, it is important to say something about Sima Qian's position. In ancient times Astrologers in China primarily served the emperor and his court. In modern times it is taken for granted that anyone can obtain a Chinese astrology reading. For well over a thousand years this was not the case in China.

It is also interesting to note that the 12 animal signs, the most well known feature of Chinese Astrology in the West, first appear in the literature hundreds of years after Sima Qian's History. In fact many works on Astrology were written in these centuries and continuing up to and through the T'ang Dynasty period (618-907 AD). Perhaps the most famous is the Dunhuang manuscript discovered by Aurel Stein. It depicts what is accepted as the oldest existing Chinese star chart.

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