The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

But I am still waiting for a plausible explanation of all four puzzles under the EOT...

You can reverse the burden of proof all you want

Well, that is how the game is played, right?

Recapping: there is no satisfactory explanation for the five puzzles under the EOT. They are just "unexplained", "weird", "peculiar".  

Not even for Puzzle 3: "why 15/30 things per diagram = 360 for the year rather than 365".  That is, the "degrees" are a problem for the EOT too: I have still to see any depiction of a Zodiac with one diagram for each sign, divided into 30 parts, with a distinct name for each part.

In contrast, under the COT I can explain four of the five puzzles (minus Puzzle 3) with a single assumption, the ZST: that each 15-thing diagram is about the interval between two solar terms, and each 30-thing diagram is about two of those terms.

the degree is still the main problem with your reading of the Zodiac section. It's unfortunate that you'd rather downplay its significance

Indeed, I cannot explain Puzzle 3.  But not because that division is incompatible with the COT or the ZST. Only because I know nothing of Chinese astronomy or astrology, and practically nothing about Chinese calendars.

You say that the ZST must be wrong, because, if each half-diagram was a solar term interval, then each "thing" would have been equal to one Babylonian degree -- "and the Chinese never used Babylonian degrees".   

However, you don't know that!   Your sources only say that Chinese astronomers did not use the Babylonian degree, but a "Chinese degree" equal to 1/365 or 1/365.25 of the circle, to specify the positions of stars and the motion of planets.  But, again, for all I know the solar terms were not used in Chinese astronomy, except as a conceptual tool to synchronize the main calendar with the seasons.  

So the solar term intervals may well have been divided into 15 parts, which would make them equal to Babylonian degrees. 

In fact, I predict that, if and when someone cares to look, they will easily find an important ancient Chinese book that will be obviously the source of the VMS Zodiac section.  Probably not with naked ladies, tubs and stars. Maybe not even with circular diagrams.  But with 24 pages, each about one solar term interval. Where each interval is divided into exactly 15 parts with distinct names.  Probably with some additional text on each page that will match in size and structure the circular text on the corresponding VMS Zodiac page. And which will naturally start with the interval between Lìchūn and Yǔshuǐ...

By the way, the ZST also offers a solution for a Puzzle 6: why did the Author decide to write the Zodiac section?

To explain that, the EOT would have to say something like this: "The Author developed a nonstandard way of looking at the Zodiac, which is based on dividing each sign into 30 degrees instead of 30/31 days, with a distinct name for each degree, and starting with Pisces instead of Aquarius or Aries, and matching Pisces with March instead of February.  He was so fond of that view that he decided to put it on vellum.  But encrypted, so that the Sacred Names of the Three Hundred Sixty Degrees would remain a secret between him and the community of five dirty lesbian nuns who actually penned the book under his supervision."

On the other hand, the ZST and COT say that the Author thought that the Chinese notion of solar terms was another chunk of Chinese knowledge that was worth bringing to Europe, and thus he transcribed a classical booklet about the topic that was recommended to him by the locals.  As he did with the Shennong Bencaojing.  

All the best,--stolfi