Zodiac _ One of Zodiac Constellations

Are all the 88 constellations in the starry sky named by foreigners? How did China divide the constellations in ancient times?

1928, the international astronomical union clearly defined the boundaries of constellations, and divided the whole day into 88 constellations, so that each star belongs to a specific constellation. According to the brightness of stars, constellations are called by Greek letters, the brightest is α, followed by β, and so on.

The twelve constellations we often mention, also called the zodiac, are a special group among the 88 constellations. As the earth revolves around the sun, from the perspective of the earth, the sun seems to move between constellations. People call the running route of the sun the ecliptic, and the running tracks of the moon and planets basically do not leave the narrow area of 9 degrees up and down the ecliptic, which is the ecliptic. Since ancient times, the ecliptic has special astronomical and astrological significance. There were twelve zodiac signs in ancient times, and the sun basically passed one zodiac sign every month, so it was called the zodiac. Today, due to precession, the date when the sun passes through the zodiac is very different from that in ancient times. The zodiac also passes through another constellation: Ophiuchus.

As early as ancient times, people in China began to observe the changes of astronomical phenomena and associated them with human activities. In order to facilitate identification and recording, the ancients combined several adjacent stars in the sky and named them after royal government agencies and officials, so they called them star officials, which means officials of the Emperor of Heaven. Star officials and western constellations have the same effect. The number of stars in the star officer ranges from a moment to dozens.

Star officials are scattered in the starry sky. In order to find them better, the ancients in China divided the starry sky into three walls, twenty-eight houses and thirty-one star zones. The northern celestial pole and the sky near the top of the head are divided into three areas, which are called the "Three Walls", namely, the Imperial Palace "Ziwei Garden" where the emperor lived, the "Taiwei Garden" where the emperor handled political affairs, and the "Tianshi Garden" where he traded with various vassal countries. Others are like cutting watermelons. Along the poles, the celestial sphere is cut into 28 pieces and recorded as 28 constellations. Not only the constellation itself, but also the constellation falling in each piece belongs to this constellation range.

According to Lu Chunqiu, the ancients in China discovered very early that the moon goes once at 27.3, and the zodiac is divided into 28 stars. The moon walked all night, just like staying in a hotel, which is convenient to record the position of the moon. Every seven nights, there are four elephants, named after animals. They are black dragon, white tiger, suzaku and Xuanwu. Corresponding to the minister of Sanyuan Palace, the four elephants symbolize four subjects.