Licensed materials · 各類內容的許可
Everything on this site falls into one of three buckets. Each has its own terms:
| Material | Licence | Commercial use? |
|---|---|---|
| Original classical texts (public-domain Chinese source) | Public domain | Yes - with attribution |
| The library's own translations, glossary, and bilingual corpus | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Yes - but derivatives must stay open |
| Tool scripts / code | MIT | Yes |
See the full contributor terms, including what may and may not be charged for, on the Contributor Agreement page.
The short version of CC BY-SA 4.0 · 簡述
CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution - ShareAlike) lets anyone share and adapt the licensed material for any purpose - including commercial use - on two conditions:
- BY - Give credit. You must attribute the source in a reasonable way: title, the library, the licence link, and a note if you changed it.
- SA - Share alike. If you remix, transform, or build on the material, you must publish your contribution under the same licence - CC BY-SA 4.0.
The authoritative legal text: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
What this means for the library · 意義
- The classical texts themselves are public domain. They are the historical record; the library only arranges and annotates them. The original Chinese stays free for everyone, forever.
- Our translations are deliberately open. Every translation, glossary entry, and corpus line is CC BY-SA 4.0 - so no contributor's work can ever be locked into a proprietary product. This is the structural guarantee behind the Contributor Agreement.
- The ShareAlike clause is the trust mechanism. A commercial product built on the corpus must keep the underlying material open. What may be sold is the service - interpretation, tools, courses, custom reports - never the corpus itself.
- We translate from the classical originals. The library does not quote modern copyrighted translations (for example Legge or Wilhelm). Our English is made directly from the public-domain source text.
How we expect attribution · 署名格式
When you reuse our content under CC BY-SA 4.0, please use a source line in this form:
《title · chapter · passage》 - translation © Chinese Astrology Library, verified YYYY-MM-DD, CC BY-SA 4.0
Example:
《滴天髓 · 通神論 · 第一章》 - translation © Chinese Astrology Library, verified 2026-08-18, CC BY-SA 4.0
Public-domain source policy · 公版來源
- Source texts are taken from public-domain editions - primarily the Chinese Text Project (ctext.org) and Wikisource - and the edition is cited on each page.
- The verification date is the date a passage was checked against the source edition.
- If you believe a passage we quote is not public domain, tell us on the About page's contact channel - we will correct or remove it.
Contact · 聯絡
Questions about licensing: see the About page for the project contact. Questions about contributing and earning: see the Contribute page and the Contributor Agreement.