The twenty-eight xiu, or lunar mansions, divide the Chinese sky along the celestial equator, each named for an asterism and grouped into four palaces under the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger and Black Tortoise. They are among the oldest features of Chinese astronomy, attested by the fifth century BCE, and were used for calendar-keeping and astrology. Related twenty-eight-fold schemes appear in India and the Islamic world; how far the systems influenced one another is debated.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingTwenty-eight UNEQUAL divisions measured along the celestial equator, each fixed by a determinative star and grouped into four palaces of seven. They divide the equator rather than the ecliptic, which sets them apart from the equal ecliptic arcs of the Indian naksatras. 1 Size of the Traditional Set28 xiu, in four palaces of seven 1 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryWhether the Chinese xiu, the Indian naksatras and the Arabic manazil descend from a common original has been argued since the nineteenth century and is unresolved. 1 Attestation
Era of AttestationAttested in Chinese astronomical literature by the fifth century BCE. 1 Comparison
Cultural Origin Learn More
The twenty-eight lunar mansions
The twenty-eight xiu, or lunar mansions, divide the Chinese sky along the celestial equator, each named for an asterism and marking a station of the Moon's monthly path. They are grouped into four palaces of seven mansions each, presided over by the four celestial animals: the Azure Dragon of the east, the Vermilion Bird of the south, the White Tiger of the west and the Black Tortoise of the north.
They are among the oldest features of Chinese astronomy, attested from early antiquity, and served both to track the heavens and, in the divinatory tradition, to assign qualities to days and directions.
Astronomy and almanac
The xiu were used to fix the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets against the stars and to regulate the calendar, and in the almanac tradition each mansion governs a day and carries auspicious or inauspicious associations for particular acts, much as the Indian nakshatras and Arabic manazil do in their systems. The four palaces also organise the sky into the great animal constellations of Chinese cosmology.
The atlas gives each xiu its asterism, its palace and animal, and its associations. It is the Chinese member of the lunar-mansion family shared with the Indian nakshatras and Arabic manazil.
All Chinese Xiu (Mansions)
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Sources
1. Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 3: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth
2. Wikipedia: Twenty-eight mansions
WikipediaTwenty-eight mansions, definition sentenceQuote, Twenty-eight mansions, definition sentence
The Twenty-Eight Mansions, also called xiu or hsiu, are part of the Chinese constellations system.
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