Let start with the story that I have learn and the very first version of the story.
The names of the stars were given as Heavenly Emperor (Tian Huang 天皇), Purple Subtlety (Zi Wei 紫微), Greedy Wolf (Tan Lang 貪狼), Huge Door (Ju Men 巨門), Rewards Star (Lu Cun 祿存), Literary Arts (Wen Qu 文曲), Chastity (Lian Zhen 廉貞), Military Arts (Wu Qu 武曲), and Broken Soldier (Po Jun 破軍). In this version, all the stars listed can actually be viewed in the night sky. The following comparative table shows these stars together with their western names for easier reference:
According to this ancient story, the Nine Emperors of the Dao Body (Jiu Huang Dao Ti 九皇道体) are the Nine Stellar Sovereigns of the Dipper. As explained by the Seven Slips of a Cloudy Satchel (Yun Qi Ji Qian 雲笈七籤), “the Nine Stars are the numinous root of the Nine Heavens, the bright bridge of the sun and moon, and the ancestral abyss of all things.
In another version of the story, the names of the stars were instead given as Greedy Wolf (Tan Lang 貪狼), Huge Door (Ju Men 巨門), Rewards Star (Lu Cun 祿存), Literary Arts (Wen Qu 文曲), Chastity (Lian Zhen 廉貞), Military Arts (Wu Qu 武曲), Broken Soldier (Po Jun 破軍), Right Assistant (You Bi 右弼), and Left Assistant (Zuo Fu 左輔). In this particular version, only seven of the stars – namely the ones that make up the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper – are visible in the night sky. The remaining two – namely Right Assistant and Left Assistant – are enigmatic in nature and were described in ancient Daoist texts as hidden. These are the nine stars that became the basis of the Qi Men 9 Stars and are only referenced extensively in many other Chinese Metaphysics applications including Feng Shui.
For hundreds of years, scholars of Chinese Metaphysics took the existence of the two hidden stars on good faith. However, new discoveries proved that ancient observers may have known more than their modern contemporaries. Mizar, the western name for Military Arts, in fact appears to the naked eye as a binary star with a companion star. Western astronomers named this companion star as Alcor. In 2009, two groups of independent astronomers verified that Alcor itself is a binary star. To differentiate them, astronomers named the two as Alcor A and Alcor B.
As a result of this discovery, a number of modern Chinese Metaphysics scholars have come to theorise that Alcor A and Alcor B are the Left Assistant and Right Assistant respectively. The following comparative table shows this list of stars together with their western names as well as the Qi Men 9 Stars that were derived from them:
Hope this sharing allow better understanding of the Stars Relationship.
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