The work cannot be considered an authentic work by Dong or even a work mostly written by him. It bears many marks of multiple authorship and is both externally contradictory with other material on Dong's thought, and inconsistent with itself. Different chapters espouse mutually contradictory cosmological schemas, and there even seem to be references to the rise of Wang Mang, which did not happen until a century after the death of Dong. The title "Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals" is not listed in the "Book of Han", and there are no references whatsoever to any book of that name before 4th century mentioned by Ge Hong, 500 years after Dong's death.