What are three walls, four elephants and twenty-eight huts?

The division of stars in ancient China has a long history and is self-contained. With the north celestial pole as the center, the stars in the sky are paired together many times, and each combination takes a name. Such a star combination is called a star official. Among the numerous star officials, 365,438+0 occupies a very important position, that is, three walls and twenty-eight accommodations.

academic titles conferred on the three candidates who came out first at examinations held at three levels

Refers to Ziwei Garden, Taiwei Garden and Tianshi Garden. Sanyuan has become the main body of three sky regions, and these sky regions are also named after Sanyuan. Purple element includes the sky area near the north celestial pole, which is roughly equivalent to the arch star area; Taiyuan contains a part of the constellations such as maiden, latecomer and lion. Tianshi source includes snake man, five immortals, giant snake, skyhawk and other constellations.

Four elephants

The ancients divided the 28 stars in the whole day into four regions according to the four directions of east, north, west and south, and each region contained seven stars. According to the shape of the seven-star combination of each part, it is named after four similar animals, called four elephants or four places. The correspondence is as follows:

The seven nights in the East are like dragons flying in the night sky in spring and early summer, so they are called Dongguan Black Dragon.

Seven nights in the north are like snakes and turtles in the night sky in late summer and early autumn, so it is called Beiguan Xuanwu;

The western seven-night tiger, which comes out in late autumn and early winter, is called Xiguan White Tiger.

The seven nights in Nanguan are like suzaku in the sky in winter and early spring, so it is called Nanguan suzaku.

Black Dragon, Xuanwu, White Tiger and Suzaku are collectively called "Four Elephants".

In addition, 28 kinds of animals can be matched with 28 kinds of animals:

Black Dragon, Dongguan: Jiaomujiao, Kang Jinlong, Tuluo, Fangri Rabbit, Xinyue Fox, Tail Fire Tiger, Jishui Leopard.

Beiguan Xuanwu: unicorn, Taurus, mother bat, rising sun mouse, dangerous moon swallow, room fire pig and wall pheasant.

Xiguan White Tiger: Wood Wolf, Lou Jin Dog, Belly Chicken, Chicken, Bi, Gun Monkey.

Nanguan Suzaku: Muan Jing, Ghost Golden Sheep, Swertia liutu, Xingma, Zhangyuelu, Winged Fire Snake and Lumbricus.

In daily life, we often use words that are closely related to the 28 th Guest House, such as participating in the operation.

There is a story in Left: Gao Xin's son has two sons, the older one is called Kui Bo, and the younger one is called Shi Shen. The two brothers are not harmonious and fight every day. Gao Xin had no choice but to arrange Wei Xiao to go to Shangqiu, where Shangxing (Xinsu) was in charge. Arrange Shi Shen to go to Daxia, belonging to the director of Canxing (Betelgeuse). Ginseng and businessmen are far apart in the sky. When one rises, the other will fall below the horizon and they will never see each other again. When they die, they will become Er Shen, a counselor, who will never see them again. Now use "consultation with opinions" to describe disagreement; It is also difficult to meet each other, such as "it is difficult for friends to meet each other like stars in the morning and evening" (Du Fu's poem), which is based on this story and the phenomenon that two stars are in tandem in their careers.

Twenty-eight constellations (division of celestial spheres in ancient astronomy in China)

Twenty-eight Hostels is the main part of the star division system created by China in ancient times. The ancients divided the stars along the ecliptic and near the equator into 28 regions of different sizes, and each region was called one night, collectively called 28 nights, also known as 28 houses or 28 stars.