Many people know about the "Twenty Eight Mansions" from "Journey to the West". Among them, Kuemu Wolf and Pleiadian Chicken are both heavy supporting role. In fact, the Twenty Eight Mansions are a very important concept in ancient Chinese astronomy and astrology. The moon orbits the earth for nearly 28 days. Ancient people divided the starry sky near the equator into 28 unequal intervals, just like building 28 hotels for the moon. The moon changes its resting place every night, which is called the "28 constellations" or "28 constellations". "Mansions" means to stay or stay. The ancients also divided the twenty-eight mansions into four categories according to the four directions and four spirits: the Eastern Azure Dragon Seven Mansions, the Northern Xuanwu Seven Mansions, the Western White Tiger Seven Mansions, and the Southern Vermilion Bird Seven Mansions. Each lodging has a form of "bird, beast, insect, and fish", accompanied by the seven obsidians of sun, moon, fire, water, wood, metal, and earth, thus forming a symbol system of "star, beast, and obsidian". So, a one character constellation name became a three character constellation name. When these symbols enter literature, they naturally carry the function of "role-playing" - readers can roughly understand their good and evil, as well as their endings, by hearing their names. Qinglong represents benevolence, Baihu represents righteousness, Zhuque represents propriety, and Xuanwu represents wisdom. Stars are personified: Jiaomu Jiao is "upright", Kuimu Lang is "Yin Gui", Subaru Chicken is "vigorous", and Jingmu Bear is "honest". In Chapter 31 of Journey to the West, Kuimu Lang transforms into a yellow robed monster and steals the Princess of Baoxiang Kingdom. After thirteen years of marriage, they even give birth to a "demon child". It was not until he revealed his true form that everyone discovered that it was the first Western dwelling Kuimu Wolf who had secretly descended. The star name corresponding to Kuimu Wolf is "Kuisu", which is the first star of the Western White Tiger Seven Mansions. It has a total of 16 stars and resembles a "shoe sole" or "pig nose". It currently belongs to the constellation of Andromeda and Pisces. The Shuowen says' Kui, between the two thighs', which refers to the human crotch. Guangya ":" Hip, Kui Ye. "The ancient work" Bu Tian Ge ", which introduced the All Sky Star Official, described it as follows:" With a slender waist and a pointed head like a worn-out shoe, the sixteen stars surround the shoe student. "Kui Su is the earliest star among the twenty-eight constellations to be measured and" located ". During the Warring States period, Marquis Yi's lacquer box had already marked its 16 equatorial stars in the shape of "soles of shoes". In the Han Dynasty's "Records of the Grand Historian: Tian Guan Shu", the phrase "Kui said to seal the Pixiu, which is called Goudu" was used to associate astrology with agricultural water conservancy experience. After the Tang and Song dynasties, with the rise of the imperial examination system, the "literary luck" of Kuisu was cleverly grafted by local officials. As a result, a complete set of "ground supporting" facilities such as Kuishan, Kuihe, Kuiguangmen, and Kuilou appeared in Xuzhou during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In Journey to the West, the character "Kui" is paired with "wooden wolf" to portray the erotic narrative of "Kui wooden wolf". The character retains both star power and is infused with wolf like qualities. Jiaomu Jiao "is not only one of the" Four Wood Birds Stars "in Journey to the West, but also related to" Jiaomu Jiao Sun Zhong "in Water Margin. The character "Jiao" as a star constellation not only means "Jiao Su", but also has meanings such as "Jiao Xing", "Tian Men", "Tian Guan", "Tian Zhu", "Shouxing", and "Chen Jiao". There is a saying in "Shuowen Jiezi" that "dragons belong to dragons". The Chu Ci: Tianwen "states:" The Jiaosu star is not yet lit, but the Yao Ling is securely hidden. "Wang Yi's annotation reads:" The Jiaokang star is the Eastern Star. "The" Astronomical Records of the Book of Jin "states:" The two stars of the Eastern Jiaosu star are the Heavenly Passes, with the Heavenly Gate and the Heavenly Court inside. "As the first of the seven Eastern Blue Dragon constellations, the Jiaosu star is regarded as the reference point for star positioning in ancient Chinese astronomy. Its position is close to the ecliptic, located at about 11 ° south latitude of the celestial sphere, and it is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. It also ranks as the 15th brightest star in the entire sky, about 260 light-years away from Earth. According to the Qing Dynasty's "Qinding Yixiang Kaocheng", this star official initially contained 11 star officials and 41 stars, and later expanded to 95 stars. When ancient people connected the Eastern Seven Mansions into a dragon shape, the Jiaosu was used as the dragon horn to form the celestial reference coordinates. During the spring plowing season in early February each year, Jiaosu rises in the east in the evening, known as "Dragon Head Raising", which later evolved into the Spring Plowing Festival, a traditional folk festival of Dragon Head Raising. Jiaomu Jiao belongs to "wood", and in "Journey to the West", the four wooden bird stars - Jiaomu Jiao, Doumu Di, Kuimu Lang, and Jingmu Bing - all belong to wood. However, the Jade Emperor instructed them to capture the rhinoceros spirit. Rhinoceros is a "golden animal". According to the traditional law of the Five Elements, "gold restrains wood". It seems unreasonable to ask "wood" to lower "gold" instead of wood, as wood should have been defeated by gold. In fact, the image of a "horn" and "well" net is used here to subdue the rhinoceros spirit. Until now, folk people have pasted the "Four Wood Birds Star" New Year's painting on their doors, which means "Wooden Virtue Town Residence". The Pleiades may be one of the most frequently appearing twenty-eight constellations in Journey to the West. Chapter 55 of Journey to the West: "The Subaru Star Official has revealed his true form. He is actually a double crowned rooster, six or seven feet tall. When he calls out to the Scorpion Spirit, the monster immediately turns into pus and blood. The Scorpion Spirit is powerless against the Tathagata, so why can the Subaru Star Official subdue him? Among the twenty-eight constellations, the Pleiades is the fourth of the seven constellations of the White Tiger in the Western Palace, composed of seven stars, also known as the Qitou (Flag Head). In the Tang Dynasty, Li He's poem goes, "In the quiet autumn, I see the lotus head," which refers to the Pleiades. The Book of Tian Guan in the Records of the Grand Historian states, "The Pleiades are called Mao Tou and Hu Xing." The ancients used the Pleiades to determine the four seasons. The Book of Documents in the Book of Documents states, "When the sun is short, the stars are in the Pleiades, and it is the middle of winter." This means that if the Pleiades are high above the sky at dusk, it indicates that the winter solstice has arrived. The Pleiades are located in Taurus, and the dense cluster of small stars is the famous Pleiades star cluster. There is a folk saying that goes, 'When the star official arrives, a double crowned rooster appears and crows loudly, causing the venomous scorpion to die in an instant.'. This has been refined by Wu Cheng'en into the astronomical code of "mutual restraint of stars": the Pleiades Rooster belongs to the "sun" Yao, corresponding to yang energy, with golden Yao in the sky, and yin poison self dissipating. When singing 'Subaru Chicken', it means that 'Riwu' rises to the east, and Yang Qi instantly rises, causing the 'Yin Poison' of Scorpion Spirit to evaporate at the speed of light. Even better, the mother of the Star Official, Bilanpo, used the "Subari Eye Hair" to refine a needle and once again broke through the Hundred Eyed Demon Lord. In the Huangdi Neijing · Lingshu Jing, it is said that "the eyes are the gathering place of the meridians, and the upper part belongs to the brain. When the yang qi is strong, the eyes can distinguish." Bilanpo uses the hair of the "sun eye" to refine needles, which is the author's incorporation of the traditional Chinese medicine concept of "using yang to overcome yin" into the plot. From ancient astronomy to literary roles, the twenty-eight constellations completed a magnificent cross-border journey. Astronomical constellations are no longer just highlights in the night sky, but literary characters with multiple meanings of desire, folklore, and culture. They not only preserved the traditional cultural core of star names, star characteristics, and the five elements, but also translated astronomical data that was once monopolized by the royal family into public symbols that can be felt, remembered, and recreated by the public through literary plot and cultural innovation. The reason why star stories are passed down is that they fold all the Chinese people's reverence for heaven, scientific imagination, and literary thinking into a set of familiar star names. These ancient star gods remind future generations that the sky was once the largest screen of ancient people, stars were the earliest characters, and stories are the best scale for us to measure the universe and ourselves. (New Society)