How would Chinese colonists name a solar system?

So I'm currently working on a science fiction project and I'm naming space colonies. Most of them have names based on Greek or Roman mythology like in real life, but there are a few that don't (One with all alien names, one based on Norse myth, and another that was actually named in real life). I wanted to do one with Chinese names and influences, but just picking names from mythology didn't seem right. I've been trying to devise names based on the chinese words for the planets in our own solar system, but I don't speak chinese and everything I come up with seems too simplistic.

My question is what do you guys think they would name these new planets after? For reference the colony is a star, a terrestrial planet, a gas giant, and maybe a moon or two. Based off of Gliese 832

edited 15th Sep '16 4:59:07 AM by elvesknowbest

I'll suggest you some names for your planets

• 地獄- Dìyù for your volcanic moon.
• 大 - Da for your gas planet.

Do those mean hell and big? Or is my translation being janky?

edited 22nd Sep '16 6:33:00 AM by CrystalGlacia

So a straight translation from the Greek then?

I think that Chinese most likely named their colonies/ new home by their historical figure names. I mean, Confucianism was big on filial piety and ancestor worship, after all.

I ended up going with the names of the three sovereigns and the five emperors as moons. I saw them as a suggestion on a different forum. I don't know if that's perfect but it's what I'm rolling with for now.

I was trying to work with planet names ending in Xing, but I was having a hard time getting a good translation.

those are all straight translations of the Greek names for the planets. The dark King is hades/Pluto and Eris is literally a God of quarrels and strife.

This thread is very weird and vaguely racist. Why the heck would they name a planet "Big" or "Hell"?

For reference, the 5 main planets of the solar system, the ones recognized by ancient astronomers, are named after the five basic elements: Firestar, Waterstar, Woodstar, Metalstar, and Earthstar (the language makes no casual distinction between stars and planets). You can't really expand on this scheme because there aren't any more elements: it used to be considered metaphysically significant that there were only 5 of them. Stars are named after mythological figures, like everyone else names stars. They named their space program Chang'e, after a well known moon goddess. I've heard it joked that this gave them better luck than the Apollo program, because the stupid Americans were trying to reach the moon as a Sun god (don't take that seriously either, it's just a joke).

In other words, Chinese people are exactly the same as the rest of us and use the same naming patterns for astronomy stuff. Don't try to be all weird about it and overthink anything. Definitely don't start making weird assumptions about Chinese culture based on ancient philosophers and pop culture. Just look up traditional Chinese gods.

edited 22nd Sep '16 3:12:25 AM by Clarste