Astronomy
Looking up at the night sky, Dan'a'yo sees an entire "culture" up there, called 天文. The formal study of these celestial objects is 天文学. This is a true modern science, and not the ancient practice of divination, called 占星術. (Notice that the first two-characters are the ancient verb "to divine by looking at star signs", 占星.). The underlying cognitive metaphor is that we are looking up at a house, with "eaves" and "roof beams", which is why the 'universe/cosmos/space-time' is 宇宙. A 'spaceship' is a 宇宙船 and an alien or astronaut is an 宇宙人.
The basic object in the sky is a "star" 星, though this also includes planets and moons. To match the English "star", you would need to say 'fixed star', i.e. 恒星. The big ones are the sun - 太陽 - and moon - 太陰. Notice the connection to Yin and Yang. Today, we distinguish planets from stars, so planet is 行星. We know that our home is in the solar system 太陽系. It is made up of
- Mercury - 水星
- Venus - 金星 (ancient people were unaware that this was the same as the Morning Star 啓明 and the Evening Star 太白星)
- Earth - 地球
- Mars - 火星
- Jupiter - 木星
- Saturn - 土星 (notice that, skipping the Earth, this order is the same as the days of the week)
- Uranus - 天王星
- Neptune - 海王星
- Pluto - 冥王星 (now a dwarf planet (矮行星) because of the discovery of Eris 䦧神星)
Between Mars and Jupiter is the Asteroid Belt 小行星帯 (which is made out of asteroids 小行星), and the region after Neptune is now called the Oort Cloud 오르트雲. It is believed that most comets (彗星) come from there. If one of these or some object enteres our atmosphere, it burns up and becomes as 'shooting star' 流星.
Our entire solar system is orbiting (軌道) within a galaxy (恒星系), specifically, the Milky Way 銀河系. (This is a bigger word than way we see up the sky, the "silver river" 銀河.) Looking out, we see nebulae 星雲 and novae 新星. For millennia, humans have grouped these stars into constellations 星座. They are established, so if you invent your own, it's just an 'asterism' 星群.
六十干支(天干/地支)
| |
木 |
火 |
土 |
金 |
水
|
| 鼠 |
1（甲子） |
13（丙子） |
25（戊子） |
37（庚子） |
49（壬子）
|
| 牛 |
2（乙丑） |
14（丁丑） |
26（己丑） |
38（辛丑） |
50（癸丑）
|
| 虎 |
3（丙寅） |
15（戊寅） |
27（庚寅） |
39（壬寅） |
51（甲寅）
|
| 兔 |
4（丁卯） |
16（己卯） |
28（辛卯） |
40（癸卯） |
52（乙卯）
|
| 龍 |
5（戊辰） |
17（庚辰） |
29（壬辰） |
41（甲辰） |
53（丙辰）
|
| 蛇 |
6（己巳） |
18（辛巳） |
30（癸巳） |
42（乙巳） |
54（丁巳）
|
| 馬 |
7（庚午） |
19（壬午） |
31（甲午） |
43（丙午） |
55（戊午）
|
| 羊 |
8（辛未） |
20（癸未） |
32（乙未） |
44（丁未） |
56（己未）
|
| 猿 |
9（壬申） |
21（甲申） |
33（丙申） |
45（戊申） |
57（庚申）
|
| 鶏 |
10（癸酉） |
22（乙酉） |
34（丁酉） |
46（己酉） |
58（辛酉）
|
| 狗 |
11（甲戌） |
23（丙戌） |
35（戊戌） |
47（庚戌） |
59（壬戌）
|
| 猪 |
12（乙亥） |
24（丁亥） |
36（己亥） |
48（辛亥） |
60（癸亥）
|
Colors
black - 黒
blue - 青
brown - 茶色 tea color, 褐
color - 色彩
grey - 灰色 ash color, 鼠色 rat color
green - 緑
orange - 橙色 orange color
pink - 桃色
purple - 紫色
red - 紅 (crimson), 赤 red
white - 白
yellow - 黄
Metals
gold : 黄金
iron: 鉄
lead : 鉛
metal : 金属
silver : 銀
steel : 鋼鉄
tin : 朱錫
copper, zinc, bronze, brass, mercury : 銅, 亜鉛, 青銅, 黄銅, 水銀
forge, anvil, alloy, ore : (v) 鍛錬, 鉄砧, 合金, 鉱石
