Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The 28 Lunar Mansions, or more precisely lodgings (Chinese: 二十 八 宿; pinyin: èrshí bā xiù) are the Chinese and East Asian form of the lunar stations. They can be considered as the equivalent to the Western zodiac, although the 28 stations reflect the movement of the Moon through a sidereal month rather than the Sun in a tropical year; (cf. Solar term).
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]
The 28 mansions of the 360° lunar zodiac total 831 Muhurtas or 27.7 days. This is sometimes described as an inaccurate estimate of our modern sidereal period of 27.3 days, but using the ancient Indian calendar with Vedic months of 30 days and a daily movement of the Moon of 13 degrees, this early designation of a sidereal month of 831 Muhurtas ...
The system of twenty-eight lunar mansions is very similar (although not identical) to the Indian Nakshatra system, and it is not currently known if there was mutual influence in the history of the Chinese and Indian systems. The oldest extant Chinese star maps date to the Tang dynasty.
As lunar mansions have such an ancient origin, the meanings of most of their names have become obscure. Contributing to later confusion, the name of each lunar mansion consists of only one Chinese word, the meaning of which could vary at different times in history. The meanings of the names are still under discussion.
The nakshatras or lunar mansions are 27 equal divisions of the night sky used in Hindu astrology, each identified by its prominent star(s). [66]: 168 Historical (medieval) Hindu astrology enumerated either 27 or 28 nakṣatras. In modern astrology, a rigid system of 27 nakṣatras is generally used, each covering 13° 20′ of the ecliptic.
Decans gave way to a lunar division of 27 or 28 lunar stations, also known as manzil, lunar mansions or nakshatras and thence to a zodiac of 12 signs, based on an anthropomorphic pattern of constellations, [2] and their use can be seen in the Dendera zodiac dated to circa 50 BCE. [3]
Northern mansions are 斗, 牛, 女, 虛, 危, 室, 壁. The moon moves through about one lunar mansion per day, so the 28 mansions were also used to count days. In the Tang dynasty, Yuan Tiangang (袁天罡) matched the 28 mansions, seven luminaries and yearly animal signs to yield combinations such as "horn-wood-flood dragon" (角 木 蛟).