Betelgeuse in Greek, Latin, Arabic, English, and Chinese

AntC led me down a deep, dark rabbit hole by asking:  "Hi Professor Mair, is the Contributing Writer confused, or is it the interwebs?"

He was prompted to ask that question by having read the following statement in this article, "Orion’s love affair, Shen Xiu’s long-distance friendship on Taiwan’s winter sky", Taiwan News, by P.K. Chen, Contributing Writer (2/8/22):

The Greek constellation Orion is called “Shen Xiu” (參宿, “The Three Stars”) in China; “Shen” or “three” refers to the three stars on Orion’s belt, while “Xiu” or “place for rest” refers to where the moon remains fixed and “rests.”

Trying to figure out the relationships among the names of the constellation and its constituent stars in Greco-Latin and Sinitic nomenclature ate up an entire evening.  To start with, there are many possibilities for how to pronounce 參宿, the Chinese equivalent to Orion (constellation name): sānsù (Google Traslate), cānsù (zdic), shēnxiù (Wiktionary).  So we've got a lot of variation involving both characters of the term.  But that's just the beginning of our attempts to grapple with the language and lore concerning Sinoxenic words for Orion. 

Here's the context for the passage that drew AntC's attention:

The most obvious and easily recognizable constellation in winter’s night sky is Orion. As long as one can find a location away from air pollution or street lamps after dark, one can find the hunter-shaped bright stars in the southern sky.

In Greek mythology, the personified hunter falls in love with the moon goddess Artemis, but offends the queen of the gods, Hera, for boasting of invincibility. Hera thus sends Scorpius to assassinate him.

Imagine lying on the beach of Kenting on a winter night, watching the moon inch more and more towards Orion, as though making love to him. Every night, the two get closer to each other due to the moon’s orbital path around Earth before gradually separating.

Yet just before dawn, when Scorpius pokes its head out from the eastern horizon, Orion rushes to clean up and leave, hiding behind the western horizon.

Interestingly, a similar story was told in ancient China. The Greek constellation Orion is called “Shen Xiu” (參宿, “The Three Stars”) in China; “Shen” or “three” refers to the three stars on Orion’s belt, while “Xiu” or “place for rest” refers to where the moon remains fixed and “rests.”

Du Fu (杜甫), a renowned Chinese poet from the Tang Dynasty once lamented not seeing a friend for several years by writing, “We are separated in life, like the constellations Shen and Shang (商) rising and falling against each other.” The constellation “Shen” refers to Orion, while the constellation “Shang” is the equivalent of Scorpius.

The fact that ancient people from both the East and the West personified and told stories about the two constellations makes such an intriguing coincidence.

(Translation by Stephanie Chiang)

It's a touching story, and the similarity of its telling, east and west, made me wonder whether it was simply a matter of sheer coincidence.

First things first — I had to educate myself about Orion:

Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations in the night sky. It is named after Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Its brightest stars are blue-white Rigel (Beta Orionis) and red Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis).

(source)

Unfortunately, the more I studied the names of the relevant constellations and stars, the more confused I became.  This was especially so when I investigated the pronunciation and meaning of the supposed Chinese equivalent of Orion, namely 參宿, or as the Taiwan News article says, "Shen Xiu" ("The Three Stars").  Ever vigilant, AntC continued his pursuit

Google Translate tells us that 參宿 is pronouced "sānsù" and, as AntC says, means 'Betelgeuse.

Betelgeuse is usually the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orion.

α Orionis (Latinised to Alpha Orionis) is the star's designation given by Johann Bayer in 1603.

The traditional name Betelgeuse is derived from the Arabic يد الجوزاء Yad al-Jauzā’ "the hand of al-Jauzā’ [i.e. Orion]". An error reading the Arabic ya as ba in the 13th century led to the European name. In English, there are four common pronunciations of this name, depending on whether the first e is pronounced short or long and whether the s is pronounced "s" or "z":

• • /ˈbɛtəldʒuːz/
  • /ˈbiːtəldʒuːz/
  • /ˈbɛtəldʒuːs/
  • /ˈbiːtəldʒuːs/

The last pronunciation has been popularized for sounding like "beetle juice."

In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included Betelgeuse for this star. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.

source

But zdic, normally an authoritative online Chinese dictionary reads 參宿 as "cānsù".

On the other hand, Wiktionary, which is generally reliable, gives "shēnxiù" for 參宿 and tells us that it is a proper noun in astronomy that means "Three Stars" and designates a Chinese constellation.

The Three Stars mansion (simplified Chinese: 参宿; traditional Chinese: 參宿; pinyin: Shēn Xiù) is one of the twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese constellations. It is one of the western mansions of the White Tiger. This collection of seven bright stars is visible during winter in the Northern Hemisphere (summer in the Southern).

Asterisms

In ancient times, this asterism only contained three stars of Orion. But later, four more stars were added to it.

(source)

What I'm seeing from these correlations is that there is a partial overlap between the Western and Chinese terms for Orion and its constituent elements, so that confuses matters more than if they were completely separate or completely different.

In terms of phonology, the biggest problem is how to pronounce 參.

Following zdic, as a verb, it can be read as

cān

[join; take part in]

[participate in] [consider; discuss] [examine; inspect] [call to pay one's respect] [refer to] [impeach]

cēn

Only used in 參差／参差 (cēncī) and 參錯／参错 (cēncuò). {from Wiktionary]

sān

number

[three]

shēn

noun

[Shen star] [ginseng]

Wiktionary has eight different etymologies for 參, each with different pronunciations and meanings.

宿

sù verb [stay overnight] [keep watch at night] [be in] [delay] [be stationed] [imply] [be content with] [seek for]

noun

[lodging station] [residence]

[night] [lodging birds] [famous person] [former]

adj.

[old; long-standing] [overnight] [last year] [experienced] [predestined] [overdue] [big]

adv.

[usually] [in advance]

xiǔ measure word [night]

xiù noun

[constellation]

Wiktionary lists four different pronunciations for 宿, the first with twenty-seven definitions.

Returning briefly to 參, it is the personal name of one of Confucius' favorite disciples, Zēng Shēn 曾參 (505-435 BC).

Still pronounced "shēn", 參 by itself can mean:

1. 1. ginseng or any other similar plant
   2. Short for 海參／海参 (hǎishēn, “sea cucumber”).

Jacques (2016b) suggested that this word is related to Japhug tɤzrɤm (“root”) and Yakkha साम (“root”).

(source)

Because of the nomenclatural ambiguity and uncertainty of 參宿 alone, I would not want to be a Sinoxenic astronomer.  However, based on the etymologies of 參 and 宿, I would vote for shēnxiù, which is where P.K. Chen and Stephanie Chen began.

In sum:

參

From 三 (OC *suːm, *suːms, “three”) + other element (Schuessler, 2007).

宿

“To stay overnight; lodge > night; mansion of the zodiac [i.e. the Sun's lodging stations]”

Probably related to Austroasiatic: cf. Old Khmer *ruk (“to take cover or shelter”) > Khmer ជ្រុក (cruk, “shelter; refuge”), Khmer ស្រុក (srok, “settlement; village”) (Schuessler, 2007). Benedict (1972) relates it to the Tibeto-Burman terms listed in the etymology of 夜 (OC *laːɡs, “night”), however the phonetics is difficult to reconcile in the current reconstructions.

(Wiktionary)

Selected readings

• "Another early polysyllabic Sinitic word" (9/21/21)
• "The vocabulary of traditional Chinese thought and culture" (6/13/21)
• "Words in Mandarin: twin kle twin kle lit tle star" (8/14/12)