Twenty-eight_mansions

Twenty-Eight Mansions

Twenty-Eight Mansions

Part of the Chinese constellation system

The Twenty-Eight Mansions (Chinese: 二十八宿; pinyin: Èrshíbā Xiù), also called xiu[1] or hsiu, are part of the Chinese constellations system. They can be considered as the equivalent to the zodiacal constellations in Western astronomy, though the Twenty-eight Mansions reflect the movement of the Moon through a sidereal month rather than the Sun in a tropical year.

The twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese astronomy (east is on the left, north at the top)

The lunar mansion system was in use in other parts of East Asia, such as ancient Japan; the Bansenshūkai, written by Fujibayashi Yasutake, mentions the system several times and includes an image of the twenty-eight mansions.[2]

A similar system, called nakshatra, is used in traditional Indian astronomy.[3]

Overview

Yuan dynasty illustration of the 28 mansions from Shilin Guangji by Chen Yuanjing

Ancient Chinese astronomers divided the sky ecliptic into four regions, collectively known as the Four Symbols, each assigned a mysterious animal. They are Azure Dragon (青龍) on the east, Black Tortoise (玄武) on the north, White Tiger (白虎) on the west, and Vermilion Bird (朱雀) on the south. Each region contains seven mansions, making a total of 28 mansions. These mansions or xiù correspond to the longitudes along the ecliptic that the Moon crosses during its 27.32-day journey around the Earth and serve as a way to track the Moon's progress. In Taoism they are related to 28 Chinese generals.[4]

Late Sui to early Tang dynasty portrayal of the Five Stars and Twenty-Eight Mansions, by Liang Lingzan (梁令瓒), .

List of mansions

Ming Dynasty Water and Land Ritual paintings of the mansions from Baoning Temple. (clockwise: Azure Dragon, Black Tortoise, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird)

The names and determinative stars of the mansions are:[5][6]

More information Four Symbols (四象), Mansion (宿) ...


See also

References

  1. [1]
    Gary D. Thompson chapter 11-24 Archived 2011-01-26 at the Wayback Machine
  2. [2]
    "Bansenshukai 8". Archived from the original on 2010-06-01. Retrieved 2014-12-12.
  3. [3]
    CBETA T21 No. 1299《文殊師利菩薩及諸仙所說吉凶時日善惡宿曜經》卷1 Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  4. [4]
    统天殿 Archived 2005-11-22 at the Wayback Machine
  5. [5]
    "The Chinese Sky". International Dunhuang Project. Archived from the original on 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
  6. [6]
    Sun, Xiaochun (1997). Helaine Selin (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 517. ISBN 0-7923-4066-3. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Twenty-eight_mansions, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.