Popular science teaches you to look at the stars with a star map (1)

Astronomical map of Suzhou stone carvings

The above picture is a very famous astronomical map of Suzhou stone carvings in the history of China. The original monument is in Suzhou Monument Museum, which is currently under renovation and is not open to the public. The one in Su Bo is a replica of the monument in the 1980s. The original author of this monument is Huang Shang, the author of Jiuyin Zhen Jing by Mr. Jin Yong.

This "astronomical map" is of great historical significance, and it is the oldest existing all-day stone carving star map based on actual measurement in the world. It was observed during the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1078 to 1085) and during the Southern Song Dynasty (1247). China ancient astronomy has a very complete system, not weaker than the western constellation system. However, what is even sadder now is that many people know the twelve constellations, but little is known about the traditional star official system in China. The author intends to briefly introduce this in four articles.

Locate Polaris

Different from the western stargazing system, China takes the equatorial plane as the stargazing benchmark, so it is a very important step to look for the North Star. Polaris is also called purple star or emperor star, because with the rotation of the earth's axis, all the stars revolve around it, much like the ancient emperors of China.

The way to find Polaris, which I described in detail in my last article, is to extend from Tian Xuan to Shu Tian five times. That bright star is the North Star. If you find Polaris, you will find the center of the whole picture, and the whole star official system will find the benchmark.

Star officials are the product of the combination of ancient China mythology and astronomy. In order to facilitate the identification and observation of stars, astronomers in ancient China formed a group of stars, and each group was named after something on the ground. This group is called star officials, or simply officials. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was also called the balcony. However, this constellation does not contain the meaning of starry sky division, which is different from the constellation concept mentioned today. Chen Zhuo in the "Three Kingdoms" merged the three-star officials of Shi, Gan and Hsien Wu to form a 283-star official system, with a total of 1465 stars, which was used by later astronomers.

Three walls, four elephants and twenty-eight stars

The origin of the four elephants, the twenty-eight stars and the three walls was far before the Zhou and Qin Dynasties. Sanyuan, Sixiang and Twenty-eight Stars are the twenty-eight star regions divided by ancient astronomers in China to observe the movements of the sun, the moon and the five stars, which are used to explain the positions of the sun, the moon and the five stars. There are several stars every night. As an important part of China's traditional culture, it has been widely used in ancient astronomy, religion, literature and astrology, astrology, geomantic omen, lucky choice and so on. Different fields give it different connotations, and the related content is very complicated.

Three yuan is Ziwei yuan, Taiwei yuan and Tianshi yuan.

In the traditional culture of China, the four elephants refer to the dragon, the white tiger, the suzaku and the Xuanwu, representing the four directions of east, west, north and south respectively.

The four elephants are distributed near the ecliptic and the white road, circling the sky. Each elephant is divided into seven sections, called "accommodation", which makes a total of 28 accommodations.