At a glance
- Purpose
- Support textual reading and multilingual retrieval.
What are Sukuyō and Sukuyōkyō?
Sukuyō links mansion and luminary vocabulary with calendar interpretation. English spellings include Sukuyo and Shukuyō. Sukuyōkyō identifies a scripture, not a universal manual for every modern website. Record explanatory works and editions separately: a later printing date is not the scripture’s composition date, and a catalogue entry does not establish every modern table’s presence in an earlier text.
Chinese, Japanese and English terminology
Use the table for reading and retrieval. A mansion term may describe a sky division or a calendar label; a luminary may identify a celestial body or a weekday. Shared characters do not guarantee the same usage. Identify the edition and passage before comparing systems. Translation aids retrieval rather than proving computational equivalence.
| Chinese / Japanese | English search term | Reading distinction |
|---|---|---|
| 宿曜 (Sukuyō) | Sukuyō / Sukuyo / Shukuyō | Mansion and luminary vocabulary in textual traditions |
| 宿曜经 / 宿曜経 | Sukuyōkyō | Identify title, edition and commentary |
| 月宿 / 宿 | lunar mansion | Distinguish a sky division from a calendar label |
| 二十七宿 | twenty-seven mansions | Identify the text and assignment rule |
| 二十八宿 | twenty-eight mansions | Do not merge with a twenty-seven-mansion system |
| 七曜 | seven luminaries | Sun, Moon and five traditional planets; also weekday usage |
| 历注 / 暦注 | calendar annotations | Explanatory almanac labels; trace their source |
How do twenty-seven and twenty-eight mansions compare?
Compare counts, names, date assignments and historical purposes. An indexed NAOJ study links twenty-seven mansions in a kana almanac with Sukuyōkyō, while a later explanatory work lists both twenty-seven and twenty-eight mansion topics. Their appearance together does not make them interchangeable. Reconstructing calculations requires the full witness and tables; this glossary does not infer natal assignments from excerpts.
How should an annotated almanac be read?
Record the almanac’s year, month, day and calendar first, then separate weekday, mansion and annotation fields. Japanese old-calendar terminology has historical context and should not be equated automatically with an app’s output. Keep original terms, transliteration and translation in research notes. Verify doubtful OCR against scans, and do not read a weekday name as a natal mansion.
Common questions
How do Sukuyo, Sukuyō and Shukuyō differ?
These are transliteration variants encountered in English searches. Check the original title, writer and edition rather than identifying a system from spelling alone.
Are seven luminaries and twenty-seven mansions the same field?
No. Luminary and mansion labels belong to distinct vocabulary and almanac fields. Keep them separate when reading or recording data.
References & further reading
Historical sources document ideas and rules of their time, not empirical proof of predictive accuracy. Source notes identify the nature and scope of each reference.
- National Diet Library · 暦の中のことばInstitutional / reference source
Library exhibition explaining old-calendar and annotation vocabulary, not evidence for compatibility predictions.
- 星文館々主 · 二十八宿詳解：吉凶速断・地之巻（1900）— NDL digital textPrimary / tradition source
Digital text and contents of a 1900 Japanese explanatory work, listing mansions and weekday topics. Check OCR against scans; this is not an unchanged witness of the Tang scripture.
- 国立天文台報 · 荘厳寺で発見された仮名暦の調査Scholarly research
NAOJ research record; its indexed excerpt identifies the twenty-seven-mansion connection with Sukuyōkyō and almanac fields. Full-text retrieval was unavailable in this review, so detailed assignment rules are not inferred.