Legs (Chinese constellation)
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The Legs mansion (奎宿, pinyin: Kuí Xiù) is one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions of the Chinese constellations. It is one of the western mansions of the White Tiger.[1]
The constellation Kui within the lunar mansion consists of 16 stars in the Western constellations Andromeda and Pisces. An older name of the constellation, dating back to the Neolithic, was Tianshi (天豕), the Celestial Pig, with Zeta Andromedae as the pig's eye. Zeta Andromedae was originally the determinative star of Kui, but this became Eta Andromedae during the Qing dynasty.[2]
In East Asian cultures, the Legs mansion (Kuí Xiù) represents wisdom, scholarship and literature. A notable example is a structure known as "Kuiwen Pavilion" (奎文閣) in the many Confucius temples in China and other East Asian countries.[citation needed]
A jade sculpture of a pig from the Neolithic Lingjiatan culture is thought to represent the constellation Kui, as the Celestial Pig (Tianshi). It closely resembles the shape of the constellation, with its eye corresponding to Zeta Andromedae.[3][4]