What is the difference between constellations and astrological signs?

Title: Astrology.

Pronunciation: xīng xiàng

Explanation: Phenomena such as light, darkness and position of stars.

Example: "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Chronicles of the Law": "I would like to ask the Taishi official to take the book of the sun and the moon and the astrological class, and to be examined by the astrological signs."

Tang Liu Changqing's poem "Guazhou Yi Feng Zhang Shiyu": "The stars are the new favorites, and the wind and frost bring the old cold." Qing Yuan Mei "Suiyuan Poems" Volume 3:

Liang Shanzhou's speech was based on poetry: "Last night I watched the stars in the atrium, and the little star was on the edge of the small star. Yao Xueyin, "Li Zicheng", Volume 1, Chapter 10:

Of course, we won't hang the lottery. People are big people, and they commit astrological signs! ”

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Gande, Shi Shen, Wu Xian, etc., each established its own star official system. In the Three Kingdoms era, the Taishi of Wu ordered Chen Zhuo, the three star officials of Gan, Shi and Wu, compiled a star catalog of 1464 stars in 283 officials, and drew a star map (the star catalog and star map have long been scattered), Jin, Sui and Tang inherited and developed, China's star division system tends to mature, and has been used for thousands of years since then, among which the most important star officials are Sanyuan and 28 Su.

Astrological Encyclopedia.

Constellation. A constellation refers to a combination of stars in the heavens in Taoist astrology. Since ancient times, humans have associated groups of stars with their mythical figures or instruments, calling them "constellations".

Constellations are the means of determining the orientation of the sky in almost all civilizations, and are widely used in the field of navigation. The division of constellations is completely artificial, and different civilizations have different divisions and names. Until 1930, the International Astronomical Union, in order to unify the complex constellation division, divided the sky into 88 official constellations, so that each star in the sky belonged to a specific constellation.

Most of these official constellations are based on ancient Greek mythology that has been handed down from the Middle Ages. In contrast, there are groups of stars that are widely circulated but not recognized as official constellations, called constellations, such as the Big Dipper (see list of stars).

In the three-dimensional universe, these stars may not actually be related to each other, but they are located in close proximity to each other, which is a spherical shell, and they may be very far apart. If we were in another solar system in the Milky Way, we would see a completely different starry sky. Since ancient times, people have been interested in the arrangement and shape of stars, and it is natural to associate some stars in close proximity to form constellations.

Horoscope Encyclopedia.