Also the Chinese did notice Hassaleh: "In the Chinese constellation system, the four main stars of Auriga - Alpha (Capella), Beta, Theta and Iota Aurigae - plus the present-day Beta Tauri formed Wuche or Wuju, meaning five chariots, one for each of the five celestial emperors. These stars were also said to govern the harvest of the five main types of cereal grown in China at that time." (Ian Ridpath's site.) In the following - potentially very valuable star map for us (from http://idp.bl.uk/education/ astronomy/sky.html) - we can find the well-known figure of Orion, green-marked deep down at right: The Cinese name Three Stars obviously refers to Tautoru, the stars in Orion's Belt. This moon station in number 21 (out of the total 28). The preceding station is number 20 (above named Turtle Head), and remembering the rule never to count the nights in a month beyond 20 we can imagine why - Orion is down in the murky 'waters' and thus cannot be counted among the stations up in the light of Sun (on 'land'). The 22th station is Well and corresponds to the major part of our Gemini. Each Chinese Moon station is connected with a specific star:
Three Stars is the last station of the White Tiger (in the West) and Well is the first station of the Red Bird (in the South): The picture agrees with my suggestion that we Hassaleh is at the end of the winter season, before Atlas (Albatain) has raised the sky roof high. Auriga (with Hassaleh) stretches across the Milky Way above the head of the White Tiger and is not associated with any Chinese moon station. Furthermore, Hassaleh was perhaps not even one of the 5 chariots: "The Chinese had an asterism here, formed by Capella with β, θ, κ, and γ, which they called Woo Chay, the Five Chariots - a singular resemblance in title to our Charioteer; although Edkins says that this should be the Chariots of the Five Emperors." (Allen) Regarded from Easter Island we can imagine Tautoru as Nga Kope Ririva and the stretch of water to the mainland as equivalent to the Chinese Well, also a water Sign, although in the domain of the Red Bird. Heka (the Turtle Head) is not visible as a head if we look from the perspective of the southern hemisphere: Therefore K could describe tagata rere without heads (and the figures in G possibly show the northern perspective of Orion). |