<blockquote>
<p>Was there an earlier word/term/expression that just got “replaced” by 行星?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>yes.</p>
<p>first of all, stars were named “恒星” or “經星” in ancient china</p>
<p>in <a href="https://ctext.org/gongyang-zhuan/zhuang-gong-qi-nian/zh?searchu=%E6%81%92%E6%98%9F%E8%80%85%E4%BD%95%E5%88%97%E6%98%9F%E4%B9%9F&amp;searchmode=showall#result" rel="nofollow noreferrer">公羊傳 莊公七年</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>恒星者何・列星也</p>
</blockquote>
<p>the annotation is “恆・常也・常以時列見”</p>
<p>in <a href="https://ctext.org/guliang-zhuan/zh?searchu=%E6%81%86%E6%98%9F%E8%80%85%EF%BC%8C%E7%B6%93%E6%98%9F%E4%B9%9F" rel="nofollow noreferrer">穀梁傳 莊公七年</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>恆星者・經星也</p>
</blockquote>
<p>the annotation is “經，常也，謂常列見”</p>
<p>then, the 5 visible planets: venus, jupiter, mercury, mars, saturn (without telescope, naked eyes observation), were named “五星” or “五緯”</p>
<p>“五星”, means five [star|point of light]</p>
<p>“五緯”, means five weft</p>
<p>the metaphor is: in weaving, the warp (經線) is the threads which are held in a frame, while the weft (緯線) is the threads which are passed sideways across the warp</p>
<p>that, primitive observation would be: the five visible planets moved forward, stationed, or backward amongst stars, which are “fixed” on the night sky.</p>
<p>btw, there’s another term “七曜”, roughly “seven shines” to describe sun, moon, venus, jupiter, mercury, mars, saturn together.</p>
<p>have fun :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-14T02:42:25.853Z
Your answer seems to sort of contradict your initial statement, in that all the words you give for planets are specifically words for the five visible planets as a whole, not words that actually mean ‘planet’ as such. None of the words 星, 纬 and 曜 on its own means ‘planet’ specifically (as distinct from ‘start’, ‘weft’ and ‘shiny one’) – they only take on that meaning in specific contexts. 行星, conversely, always means ‘planet’. So really it seems to me your answer is that while _yes_, Chinese had words used to name/describe the known planets, _no_ it didn’t have a word for ‘planet’ as such.
Janus Bahs Jacquet
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-14T04:11:23.183Z
@JanusBahsJacquet, well, “planet”, it means “large, round object in space that moves around a star”. that, in our solar system, **earth is also a planet**. in ancient china, there’s **no** notion that earth is a planet. so, “行星” is a translation with modern, scientific meaning. the op asked about “ Was there an earlier word/term/expression that just got “replaced” by 行星? “ the terms provided in my answer are “五星”, “五緯” & “七曜”, chopping them into “星”、”緯”、”曜” and then to comprehend; is inappropriate. reading classical / literary chinese, the context is really important in comprehension, imo 
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-14T04:39:06.410Z
@JanusBahsJacquet, for comparison, let’s say “i ate a hot dog for lunch”, then, someone chop the “hot dog” into “dog”, and make accusation upon eating dog meat. isn’t it, . . . ridiculous?
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-17T13:06:51.980Z
could refer to --> https://philpapers.org/rec/CULUTP-2
envs_h_gang_5
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-17T13:20:06.627Z
the earliest known surviving Chinese document⤴️ to give a substantive account of the apparent motions of the five visible planets (五星)
envs_h_gang_5
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-12T05:25:56.943Z
2023-05-26T05:41:36.910Z
2023-05-26T05:41:36.910Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>Before the Chinese knew what 行星 was, planets like Jupiter were just 星宿 or simply 星(star) to them.</p>
<p>Before the Chinese knew what Supernova was, they called it 客星 (guest star), and in modern times 客星 was replaced by the direct translation 超新星</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-12T02:49:27.283Z
2023-05-12T02:49:27.283Z
Tang Ho
<p>Star is 恒星. 恒 means constant, not changing. It says, these 星's relative position to others do not change.</p>
<p>On the contrary, 行星, 行 is walking, ext. to moving. It says, these 星 are &quot;moving&quot; across the sky, compared to the stars.</p>
<p>Before ancient astronomers realize that they are behaving different, they are both called 星, which are those twinkle twinkle things on the night sky, usually also translated to star as of today unless specifically says 行星.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-13T00:45:49.133Z
2023-05-13T00:45:49.133Z
王博龙
<p><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%A1%8C%E6%98%9F" rel="noreferrer">This Wiktionary article</a> mentions that the term for “planet” is 行星 and that it was “[c]oined by Alexander Wylie and Li Shanlan in 1859,” from characters meaning “travel” and “star,” which makes sense as planets are, to the eye, “traveling stars”—their position changes (slowly) from one night to the next.</p>
<p>I find odd, though, that—if we take the article at face value—there would not have been any word/expression for “planet” <em>before</em> these authors’ work, or even before European contact. Chinese astronomers of long ago saw and reported on their observations of planets—there is, for example, a report of Gan De in the fourth century BCE having observed Jupiter—so they <em>must</em> have used a common word to describe them all, and not just each one by its proper name.</p>
<p>My question is: Was there an earlier word/term/expression that just got “replaced” by 行星? What was it? And how would it translate to English?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-14T02:31:25.890Z
Just for the record: 行星 is a **calque** from European languages – the word ‘planet’ itself is Greek (πλανήτης _planḗtēs_) and means ‘wanderer’, derived from the verb πλανάω _planáō_ ‘wander’. The reason behind the name is as you say, but it was named that way by Ancient Greek astronomers who made the same sort of observations the Chinese did.
Janus Bahs Jacquet
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-17T13:05:37.050Z
could refer to -->https://philpapers.org/rec/CULUTP-2
envs_h_gang_5
<etymology><history>
Word for “planet”
# Word for “planet”

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-05-12)

[This Wiktionary article](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%A1%8C%E6%98%9F) mentions that the term for “planet” is 行星 and that it was “[c]oined by Alexander Wylie and Li Shanlan in 1859,” from characters meaning “travel” and “star,” which makes sense as planets are, to the eye, “traveling stars”—their position changes (slowly) from one night to the next.

I find odd, though, that—if we take the article at face value—there would not have been any word/expression for “planet” *before* these authors’ work, or even before European contact. Chinese astronomers of long ago saw and reported on their observations of planets—there is, for example, a report of Gan De in the fourth century BCE having observed Jupiter—so they *must* have used a common word to describe them all, and not just each one by its proper name.

My question is: Was there an earlier word/term/expression that just got “replaced” by 行星? What was it? And how would it translate to English?

**Tags:** etymology, history

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Just for the record: 行星 is a **calque** from European languages – the word ‘planet’ itself is Greek (πλανήτης _planḗtēs_) and means ‘wanderer’, derived from the verb πλανάω _planáō_ ‘wander’. The reason behind the name is as you say, but it was named that way by Ancient Greek astronomers who made the same sort of observations the Chinese did.  
> **username_2**: could refer to -->https://philpapers.org/rec/CULUTP-2  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2023-05-12. Score: 7

> Was there an earlier word/term/expression that just got “replaced” by 行星?

yes.

first of all, stars were named “恒星” or “經星” in ancient china

in [公羊傳 莊公七年](https://ctext.org/gongyang-zhuan/zhuang-gong-qi-nian/zh?searchu=%E6%81%92%E6%98%9F%E8%80%85%E4%BD%95%E5%88%97%E6%98%9F%E4%B9%9F&searchmode=showall#result)

> 恒星者何・列星也

the annotation is “恆・常也・常以時列見”

in [穀梁傳 莊公七年](https://ctext.org/guliang-zhuan/zh?searchu=%E6%81%86%E6%98%9F%E8%80%85%EF%BC%8C%E7%B6%93%E6%98%9F%E4%B9%9F)

> 恆星者・經星也

the annotation is “經，常也，謂常列見”

then, the 5 visible planets: venus, jupiter, mercury, mars, saturn (without telescope, naked eyes observation), were named “五星” or “五緯”

“五星”, means five [star|point of light]

“五緯”, means five weft

the metaphor is: in weaving, the warp (經線) is the threads which are held in a frame, while the weft (緯線) is the threads which are passed sideways across the warp

that, primitive observation would be: the five visible planets moved forward, stationed, or backward amongst stars, which are “fixed” on the night sky.

btw, there’s another term “七曜”, roughly “seven shines” to describe sun, moon, venus, jupiter, mercury, mars, saturn together.

have fun :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Your answer seems to sort of contradict your initial statement, in that all the words you give for planets are specifically words for the five visible planets as a whole, not words that actually mean ‘planet’ as such. None of the words 星, 纬 and 曜 on its own means ‘planet’ specifically (as distinct from ‘start’, ‘weft’ and ‘shiny one’) – they only take on that meaning in specific contexts. 行星, conversely, always means ‘planet’. So really it seems to me your answer is that while _yes_, Chinese had words used to name/describe the known planets, _no_ it didn’t have a word for ‘planet’ as such.  
> **username_3**: @username_1, well, “planet”, it means “large, round object in space that moves around a star”. that, in our solar system, **earth is also a planet**. in ancient china, there’s **no** notion that earth is a planet. so, “行星” is a translation with modern, scientific meaning. the op asked about “ Was there an earlier word/term/expression that just got “replaced” by 行星? “ the terms provided in my answer are “五星”, “五緯” & “七曜”, chopping them into “星”、”緯”、”曜” and then to comprehend; is inappropriate. reading classical / literary chinese, the context is really important in comprehension, imo   
> **username_3**: @username_1, for comparison, let’s say “i ate a hot dog for lunch”, then, someone chop the “hot dog” into “dog”, and make accusation upon eating dog meat. isn’t it, . . . ridiculous?  
> **username_2**: could refer to --> https://philpapers.org/rec/CULUTP-2  
> **username_2**: the earliest known surviving Chinese document⤴️ to give a substantive account of the apparent motions of the five visible planets (五星)  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2023-05-12. Score: 4

Before the Chinese knew what 行星 was, planets like Jupiter were just 星宿 or simply 星(star) to them.

Before the Chinese knew what Supernova was, they called it 客星 (guest star), and in modern times 客星 was replaced by the direct translation 超新星


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### Answer by username_5 on 2023-05-13. Score: 1

Star is 恒星. 恒 means constant, not changing. It says, these 星's relative position to others do not change.

On the contrary, 行星, 行 is walking, ext. to moving. It says, these 星 are "moving" across the sky, compared to the stars.

Before ancient astronomers realize that they are behaving different, they are both called 星, which are those twinkle twinkle things on the night sky, usually also translated to star as of today unless specifically says 行星.


---

