星曜 (xīngyào): heavenly bodies

Meanings

1 heavenly bodies
2 celestial luminaries (esp. sun, moon and the five visible planets)

Characters

星

Examples

古人用星曜的运行来推算节气。

Gǔrén yòng xīngyào de yùnxíng lái tuīsuàn jiéqì.

The ancients used the movements of celestial bodies to calculate the solar terms.

紫微斗数中,十四主星曜决定命盘格局。

Zǐwēi Dǒushù zhōng, shísì zhǔ xīngyào juédìng mìngpán géjú.

In Zi Wei Dou Shu astrology, the fourteen main stars determine the chart's structure.

Tips

culture

曜 (yào, 'to shine') was the classical word for the seven luminaries of premodern astronomy — sun, moon, and five visible planets. The same character names the days of the week in Japanese (月曜日 'Monday', 火曜日 'Tuesday', etc.), preserving the old Chinese system Japan inherited.

register

星曜 is literary and shows up mainly in classical texts, astrology (especially 紫微斗数 Zǐwēi Dǒushù 'Purple Star Astrology'), and poetic writing. Everyday Chinese uses 星星 (xīngxing) or 天体 (tiāntǐ, celestial body) instead.